The House of Hades (FanFiction)
by sheltie26
Summary: Beginning right where The Mark of Athena left off, we see what happened to Percy and Annabeth as they let go and fell into Tartarus
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- Percy**

Percy heard his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, tell him to let her go, that he couldn't pull her up from Tartarus. He knew that, right now, he was barely holding on to his makeshift ledge with his fingertips. But Percy Jackson had absolutely no intention of letting Annabeth go.

Instead he yelled up to Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, to lead the others to the mortal side of the Death Doors and that Annabeth and himself would meet them there. Percy really didn't have the strength to argue with the kid, so when he saw the doubt in his face, Percy made Nico promise to him that he would. For a split second Percy thought Nico would say no and try to climb down to help them himself, but then Nico seemed to realize how idiotic that would be, so he said in a shaky voice that he would lead the others.

That was good because Percy didn't think he could have lasted another millisecond holding onto that ledge and Annabeth at the same time. He tightened his grip on Annabeth's frail wrist, and spoke to her in the most sincere and honest voice he had, which wasn't that hard.

"We're staying together. You're not getting away from me. Never again."

Percy saw comprehension dawn on her beautiful face, and she nodded as she said, "As long as we're together."

With that, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, let go of his ledge and with Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, plunged into Tartarus, to face their most dangerous adventure yet, and that was saying a lot.

Percy had been chased by the Minotaur, fallen off the St. Louis Arch, stung by a pit scorpion, fought in several battles with all different kinds of creatures, which lead to him receiving multiple wounds, bathed in the River Styx, and even held up the world with his own shoulders. Nothing could have prepared him for the pain he would experience in Tartarus.

If Percy thought his other injuries were painful, this was pure agony, waves of it surfing through his mind, almost causing him to pass out from the torture. He most certainly would have let the darkness claim his mind so he wouldn't have to feel the agony anymore, if it wasn't for Annabeth.

He knew that whatever he was experiencing, her pain would be worse with her broken ankle and the other ailments she had received from her fight with Arachne, the mother of all the spiders. So Percy held his girlfriend as close as physically possible and tried to shield her from everything he could. There were so many dreadful and truly terrifying things in Tartarus, Percy almost began to feel sorry for the monsters that were sent here when they were killed.

What he saw was too horrifying to put into feelings, let alone words, but when he later had to describe it to his friends, he told them that he had seen the most gruesome war scenes that would have made even Ares, the god of war, flinch in disgust. Also Percy saw monsters with 500 mouths with triple that many razor-like teeth consuming heroes, mortals screaming in terror at something, his mind couldn't process what it was, it was just too terrible, and countless other scenes like that. But if matters couldn't get worse, there were the screams from all around them, and what they were coming from; Percy didn't even want to try to guess.

He looked down at Annabeth in his arms and saw she wasn't moving and that her eyes were closed. As much as he knew it wasn't logical to do, Percy began to panic.

"Annabeth, no! C'mon Annabeth, wake up! Wake up! Annabeth, you have got to be kidding me! I did not just leap into Tartarus, for you just to die on me!"

With each word, Percy's voice became shriller and shriller until it was higher an octave than usual, and he sounded like a high-pitched girl. At his last word, when Annabeth still didn't show any response that she had heard him or that she was alive, Percy Jackson began to cry.

He did his best not to make any sound so he wouldn't further alert any monsters that could be nearby, but that didn't mean his shoulders didn't shake uncontrollably.

After he had almost lost all hope that he would ever hear his sweet Annabeth's voice again, she spoke.

"Seaweed Brain, why on earth are you sobbing like a little girl?"

"Annabeth! I thought you were dead!"

"Do I look dead right now, Seaweed Brain?"

"Well, no. But you weren't moving at all, and you were so pale and cold!"

"Ever heard of fainting? I'd like to see you try to remain conscious while falling in this miserable pit with a broken ankle."

"Jeez Wise Girl, you make one mistake in thinking your girlfriend has left you forever, and you get this!"

"I wouldn't be me if I didn't correct you on everything."

That is when things turned from terrible to horrible.

In his panic about Annabeth, Percy had forgotten about the remaining carnage of Arachne's chamber. Now he was diffidently regretting that mistake because it seemed everything was falling on them; and as if the universe didn't hate them enough, rocks, asphalt, wood, and every other material that was anywhere near them or the chamber when they fell, began to hit them too.

"Seriously," Percy shouted at no one, "can't we catch a break!"

Just as his last word was finishing echoing around them, the falling materials began to pelt them with everything they had.

One piece of asphalt hit him square on the head, and he saw nothing but stars for a couple of painful moments. A boulder flew out of nowhere, and hit his right shoulder, and he could feel the bone snap in half.

Percy managed not to cry out from the pain of his broken shoulder, because he knew if Annabeth knew he was in pain, she would immediately remove herself from sobbing into his chest and try to protect him. The only thing that was protecting her from the raining materials, was Percy's body, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

By the time the debris managed to stop assaulting them, Percy had five fractured ribs, a broken right wrist, a broken right knee cap, a shattered left ankle, and he was also pretty sure he had a nasty concussion from all the things that hit him on his head.

From what he could tell, Annabeth hadn't even gotten a scratch from the debris but he knew she was still in agony from her ankle. He looked down at himself and he saw his five broken ribs protruding from a deep gash on his side that was quickly costing him large amounts of blood, his right wrist bone bent at the strangest angle he had ever seen, his right knee sticking out of its socket at a nauseating angle, he couldn't feel his right shoulder at all, which he knew was never a good sign since he felt the bone snap in two, also he was pretty sure his left foot was really not supposed to be pointing that way. To top it all off, he couldn't see straight from all the blows to the head he had taken.

Finally Percy couldn't stand the pain anymore, and he let out a moan of agony. Immediately he wished he hadn't.

"Percy! Oh gods! Are you alright?" Annabeth asked, her voice thick with concern for him.

"Just (gasp) peachy."

"No, you most certainly are not! Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

"Really Annabeth, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about."

"Oh, really? Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I did this!"

With that, she lunged at him and gave him a huge embrace, that if the circumstances had been different, he would have loved, but now, made him gasp and cry out in excruciating pain.

"Annabeth!"

"You are obviously not fine, Seaweed Brain! Now lift up your shirt, so I can examine you, it's not like we are going anywhere."

"Really Annabeth, please don't worry about me. We need to do something for that ankle of yours."

"Perseus Jackson! My ankle is fine at the moment; I swear to gods you are such a moron sometimes, if you took all those blows from the debris just to protect me and my stupid ankle. Now lift up your shirt, or I will come over there and do it for you!"

Seeing that he really couldn't persuade Annabeth that he was fine and she shouldn't be worrying about his wellbeing, Percy reluctantly lifted up his shirt so he could show Annabeth his wounds. Unfortunately, even those simple movements made him moan and cry out in pain from his shoulder, wrist, and ribs.

"Holy Athena! Oh my gods, Percy, you look awful! Why, oh why, didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you."

"Worry me! Percy, you are the most idiotic person I've ever met, only you would take all those injuries in silence and not even bother to mention it and the agony you must be in right now! Now stay still while I try to see what is broken and what is just bruised, which in your case, is just about everything!"

"Annabeth, stop! You can't afford to do anything without making your ankle worse."

"Seaweed Brain, either you willingly stay still while I try to take care of you, or I punch you in the head, and given your state, that will knock you out instantly! So either I can take care of you while you are conscious or unconscious, your choice. Either way, you are being taken care of, whether you like it or not!"

Percy hung his head in defeat and reluctantly stayed still while Annabeth pulled the rest of his shirt off to get a better look at his ribs and shoulder, and also rolled up his pants for his knee and ankle.

Normally these movements shouldn't have caused Percy any pain whatsoever, but in his condition, tears unwillingly escaped his eyes and he couldn't help but cry out in pain.

"Seaweed Brain, do you realize how serious this is? From what I can tell you broke 5 ribs, your wrist, your shoulder, your knee, and your ankle. Also, I'm examining your head and I am fairly certain you have a terrible concussion. No one can function like this; who knows what we will face when we land, if we ever land! But if we do, what if we come across monsters, and you most certainly cannot fight them like this! Oh, Seaweed Brain!"

With that she threw herself at him and started sobbing on his good shoulder. _The one time she willingly hugs me, I can't even enjoy it because she is in so much distress and I am in so much pain,_ Percy thought to himself. Black spots were starting to dance across his vision and he knew if he didn't remove himself from Annabeth's grasp, he would pass out from the agony.

"Annabeth, I'm really sorry that I've given you so many things to worry about, but this is really hurting me."

"Sorry, Percy, sorry! It's just that I could never stand it if you died on me and it would be my entire fault!"

"How would me dying be your fault?"

"Because if it weren't for me, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Annabeth Chase, I chose to let go of the ledge and hold onto you; me dying down here would never be your fault."

"I don't know, Percy."

"Well, I do. Come here Wise Girl, let me lightly hug you while you sleep, and I take first watch."

"Percy, what are you watching for? We are falling down a bottomless pit of Tartarus, in case you haven't noticed."

"Oh believe me, I noticed. I am watching for the bottom, we do not know for certain, this is bottomless."

"Percy, if anyone should take first watch, I should. You really need to get some sleep, try to repair those bones. Boy, I really wish I had some ambrosia and nectar to give you."

"It's fine, Annabeth. I'm not tired, you really should sleep."

"Seaweed Brain, again I am forced to say this. You are one good punch to the head from la-la land. Either you are going to sleep the easy way or the hard way; again, whichever way you chose, you are going to sleep."

"Gosh Wise Girl, if you keep up this violent streak, I won't need to heal, you can just take out the monsters with your punch to the head."

"Ha-ha, very funny, Seaweed Brain. Now seriously if you are not asleep in the next 15 seconds, I am delivering that knock our punch to your temple."

"Very well then, Wise Girl. You beat me this time."

"Seaweed Brain, what are you talking about? I beat you _every_ time."

With that, Percy bent his head, and fell into a deep dreamless sleep. This unfortunately, lasted about 5 seconds.

"Percy! Wake up! I can see the ground, and it is coming toward us very fast!"

"What! I knew I should have taken first watch!"

"Never mind that! What do we do?"

"You're the daughter of Athena!"

"Right, right; but I don't know what to do!"

"Fantastic! Wait, I think I remember seeing something on the news once about a guy getting tossed into a tornado and didn't even break any bones because he was unconscious! So we just have to become limp enough so our muscles loosen, and that should protect us!"

"Seaweed Brain, you're a genius!"

"I have my moments. Come Annabeth into my arms, this way both of our muscles can loosen up better."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? By the way, how are you feeling?"

"I feel just fine, and even if it doesn't work, at least we have each other."

What Percy didn't tell her was that he knew that his muscles would have a harder time loosening up with her in his arms, but he wanted to protect Annabeth as much as possible, even if that caused him unbearable pain.

When Annabeth buried herself into his chest and held him close, he had to bite back a yelp of pain that it caused, but he still held her next to him and waited for impact.

The impact came too soon for comfort and right away, he knew something went wrong. His body should not be in this much pain. The world blended into one, and as his head slammed into the barbed wire below, Percy lost consciousness.

"Percy! Oh no, oh gods, please wake up! Wake up! You can't be dead, you just can't! Why, gods, why! Percy!"

As Percy slowly rejoined the world of the living, and in this place he uses the term living loosely, he heard Annabeth's hysterical sobbing, as she cradled his head against her chest.

This movement caused Percy such excruciating pain, he yelped.

"Percy, oh gods! You're alive! I thought you were dead for sure!"

"Do I look dead to you? Also I'm pretty sure the dead don't feel pain on these agonizing levels."

"But you are covered in blood and you looked so broken! You also weren't moving and your eyes were shut!"

"Ever heard of passing out from pain? I feel like every bone is on fire and is being torn apart."

"You knew you would take most of the impact with your own body to protect me! Perseus Jackson, you are the stupidest person I've ever met! By the way, don't think I missed your return comment back to me, by giving me grief over thinking you were dead."

"Wise Girl, I will always try to protect you, no matter what. I don't care how much pain this causes me, you are always worth it."

Percy saw Annabeth's stormy gray eyes swell up with tears, and she lunged to hug him and gave him a big kiss through her tears.

"Oh, Seaweed Brain! I will always protect you too!"

"Thanks, Wise Girl. But do you know where we are?"

Percy saw Annabeth wipe the tears from her eyes as she looked around, trying to get a sense on their bearings. He would have looked around himself, but he had a feeling that the movement would cause him to black out again.

"It looks like we are in a field of barbed wire. Why this is here, I have no idea."

"Well, that explains the state of my shirt and skin. It's a relief though not to hear that you didn't just decide to attack me with a weed whacker."

Through his daze of pain, Percy heard Annabeth laugh in what seemed like months.

"Don't give me any ideas, Seaweed Brain. Now before we set out to escape this dreadful place, let's have a look at your new wounds."

"Do we have to? I have a feeling it's going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you."

"I have a feeling you're right, but we still have to do it, otherwise they can become infected, and that is something you really don't want to happen. So just brace yourself for the pain, ok?"

"Fine, I'll try. Count of three, you yank my shirt off, or what is left of it, alright?"

"Deal. One, two, three!"

As Annabeth yanked his shirt off as fast and gentle as she could, Percy's vision got dark around the edges from the pain of everything. He knew he did something really bad to his body as soon as he heard Annabeth gasp in shock, but he didn't dare look down to see what it was.

"Oh, Percy!"

"How bad is it?"

"Well, you diffidently won't be going anywhere for a while. Um, do you mind if I use what is left of your shirt to try to use it as a bandage to stop the bleeding of your worst wounds?"

"Wait, do you have any wounds? Also, how's that ankle?"

"Percy! Enough about my ankle! It's about 95% healed now, which is 95% more healed than I can say for your many injuries. Furthermore, no, I did not even get a bruise from that fall, because you were idiotic enough to take the impact all by yourself!"

"Well, I'm happy to hear that you didn't hurt yourself, and that your ankle is feeling better. So if you really don't have any wounds that we need to tend to, then yes, you can use my mangled shirt to try to clean and bandage my injuries."

Annabeth gave him a short curt nod, and began to carefully rip his destroyed shirt into strips, to use as bandages.

After about 15 minutes of her creating long strips of bandages, we had about 25 strips to try to bandage all his wounds.

"Percy, this is going to hurt a lot. I really wish I had some way to properly clean your wounds because who knows how much dirt and germs are down here, but we really don't have a choice. Also you should also know that I don't have my backpack anymore. So I lost my knife and laptop, and all of my ambrosia and nectar."

"It's fine Annabeth, I can deal with a little pain."

"Seaweed Brain, this is going to cause you more than a little pain. Just so you don't pass out again on me, take deep calming breaths, and if you need to, squeeze my hand as hard as you can. Whatever you do, don't lose consciousness!"

"Alright, Wise Girl. I got it, don't pass out. Now before I lose my bravery, can you please clean my wounds, but also can you tell me what new injuries I have acquired this time?"

"Seaweed Brain, do you really want to know? Because trust me, it's not pretty."

"Wise Girl, trust me, I need to know what I did to my body so I can be careful not to injure it again."

"Have it your way then, Seaweed Brain. But don't say I didn't warn you. Adding onto your concussion, broken 5 ribs, shoulder, wrist, knee, and shattered ankle; you crushed 4 more ribs, you broke your right cheekbone, and you shattered your left hipbone. To top all that off, you have more than a dozen long gashes on your back and chest that makes it look like you really did get attacked by a weed whacker. For your skull, I don't know if you fractured it or not, but just in case, promise you will be really careful not to get anymore head injuries."

"Alright, I promise to try not to get anymore head injuries. But all that doesn't sound so good."

"I told you so, now stay still so I can bandage those gashes and your head and also so I can splint your shoulder, wrist, midsection for your ribs, knee, and ankle. With any luck, there is no infection in the wounds so hopefully, they won't kill you."

With that pleasant thought, Annabeth began to bandage Percy's many wounds. It hurt so bad his vision began to narrow and darken, and he knew that he was seconds away from passing out again. Remembering Annabeth's advice not to black out, he started to take deep breaths to try return his vision back to normal, but when that didn't work, he seized Annabeth's hand and squeezed as hard as he could.

"Ow, Percy! Jeez, are you trying to break my wrist to match yours?"

"Sorry, Annabeth. Are you done yet?"

"Almost, just a few more minutes."

Those few minutes felt like an eternity of agony. Wave after wave of excruciating pain surfed across his mind until finally, Annabeth was done.

"That's the best I can do with just your shirt to use as bandages and splints. But at least I was able to stop most of the bleeding from the gashes and set the bones properly. Since we are half-god as well as half-human, we heal a little bit faster than regular mortals but not nearly as fast as gods, so you will heal anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks. Hopefully, we will live long enough to see how fast your bones heal."

"Great, I get 2 months of agonizing pain. Fantastic."

"We will just have to manage the best we can, hopefully somewhere down here, there are some real medical supplies and ambrosia and nectar. Anyway, do you think you can stand up and walk/hobble, because I really don't think it's wise to stay here for much longer."

"I can try."

With that, Percy tried to stand, trying to put most of the weight on his right leg because of his broken left hip, but that wasn't much better because he still had a broken right kneecap that absolutely did not want weight being put on it. Since that didn't work, Percy tried to put his arms on the ground and push himself up that way, but when someone has 9 busted ribs, a broken wrist, and a broken shoulder, that way hurts worse than putting weight on his broken knee. To make things worse, Percy felt his gashes split open and start gushing blood again.

Percy's sea-green eyes crossed in pain and he turned a nasty shade of green. He gasped out in pain and his eyes filled with tears of agony.

"Percy! Oh gods, are you all right?

"I think so; gods, that hurt!"

"I'm so sorry to push you like this, but we really do have to move, I can feel something coming, and I know it's not friendly. Come here, I'll help you up."

Annabeth bent down to help lift Percy off the ground where he currently was moaning in pain, and that's when she saw the blood. It was coming out of Percy at an alarming rate and he was turning from green to grey. She took a deep breath and lifted him off the ground and helped him stay on his feet.

Percy looked down at his body and saw how bad he really was. His shoulder was wrapped up tight and he knew he would never be able to lift that arm in a fight, his wrist was splinted so it was immobile, his skull was wrapped many times in bandages so it felt strangely heavy, his ankle splinted like Annabeth's had been when she had broken hers, with two pieces of wood bound by bandages rather than Bubble Wrap, and his knee held straight by a cast-like bandage. But the worst thing was his ribs, the gash that ran from the middle of his chest to his right hip was loosely bound and he saw some of his busted ribs poking from the bandage. He knew he still had a badly broken left hip and right cheekbone that couldn't be splinted, and he didn't want to even know how swollen they were or what the gashes on his back looked like.

"I really don't look too good, do I?"

"No, no you don't. Come on Seaweed Brain, I'll help you walk. But don't even mention my ankle, because nothing will stop me from helping you get along, especially since these injuries are my fault. Now don't even bother to reply, save your strength for walking, you'll need it."

With that, they set off to escape the field of barbed wire and to find the Doors of Death. Annabeth was practically dragging Percy along, while he did his best to stay conscious and semi-alert for any monsters that may come out and attack them. Naturally, that is just what happened.

After walking/hobbling about 2 miles, the barbed wire field finally came to an end and was replaced by a forest of twisting moving trees that had razor branches attached to them. If that wasn't bad enough there were cobwebs everywhere and miniature spiders swung from tree to tree. Just when things couldn't get any worse, a familiar voice that they thought they would never have to hear again, spoke and a terrifying figure appeared.

"Well done Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase; you have managed to separate yourselves from your friends and lose the majority of your weapons and supplies. I may not have the Curse of Achilles anymore to protect me, but neither do you. Finally, I can defeat you with the help of my beloved immortal servant who hates the gods as much as I do!"

As the last word echoed around them, Arachne appeared behind the trees, perfectly fine, but that wasn't even the scariest part, her eyes were solid gold. Percy had only seen those eyes once before but he would never forget them; they had belonged to Luke at the time, who was possessed by Kronos, the lord of time, and the most evil Titan there ever was. Kronos was here now, possessing Arachne, determined to kill them once and for all.


	2. Chapter 2

** Chapter 2- Percy**

Percy's heart was racing at the fact that he was now facing the Titan King and all he had was a sword and he was severely injured. It was just his luck that Kronos was now possessing Arachne, the mother of all spiders, and also Annabeth's greatest enemy and fear.

Percy heard a whimper next to him and he k new Annabeth was as afraid right now as he was.

"It's fine, Annabeth. Stay here, I'll take him, or her, or whatever!"

"No, Percy! You can barely stand as it is, how on earth are you going to fight?"

"I can do it, we are wasting time as it is! Just don't move!"

With that, Percy hobbled over to Arachne/Kronos where she/he was laughing like a maniac.

"You, Percy Jackson? You think you can defeat me? Your girlfriend there is right, you can barely stand from your injuries, and I am immortal!"

"You may be immortal, Kronos, but that doesn't mean you can't be defeated and sent further into Tartarus, where you will never reform again. I will defeat you, injured or not, I will never let you reform again!"

"Lies! If you think you can defeat me, prove it! Fight me right now! No help whatsoever by others, and let's see who will win this time!"

As Kronos spoke his last word, he lunged at Percy, his fangs ready to sink into his neck. Percy immediately pulled out Riptide, his sword, from his pocket and did his best to fight with a broken shoulder and wrist, while he could barely stand, let alone lunge.

Kronos saw Percy's sword swipe at him just in time to save himself, so Kronos dove to Percy's left, knowing Percy couldn't cross lunge at him without blacking out from the pain. Percy managed to stay on his feet and stab Kronos's right side, and as he bellowed from the pain, Percy took the chance to stab him in Arachne's stinger.

"You dare attack me, Perseus Jackson! I will kill you and all of your friends! Your blood spilled will help raise my mother, the almighty Gaea!"

"Never! She will never awake, and you will never rise again!"

Percy sidestepped Kronos's next attack, but the movement caused him to cry out in pain and almost pass out. Luckily, before Kronos could kill him with Arachne's fangs, he recovered and ducked as Kronos flew over him.

Unfortunately, this put him within the reach of the trees and their branches shot out and wrapped themselves around his waist and neck. Their razor branches cut into his skin, leaving more gashes in their place, the pain was so intense, Percy wondered how he was still conscious. In the distance, he could hear Annabeth screaming his name but he couldn't summon up the energy to tell her that he was still alive.

"You are going to die, Percy Jackson, and your death will destroy the world!"

Pulling together as much energy as he could, Percy tore the branches away from his skin, causing his blood to flow more freely. But Percy couldn't worry about that right now, he knew he had to stop Kronos.

Kronos was coming toward him, taking his time, thinking that since Percy was on the ground, that either he was dead or on death's door. When Percy had landed, he had slammed his head against a rock and he felt himself quickly losing consciousness. But he knew that he couldn't black out before killing Kronos, or he and Annabeth would both die. So quick as a snake, Percy threw his sword at Kronos like a javelin and it hit Kronos between the eyes.

Realizing what just happened, Kronos desperately tried to slow down time to heal the wound, but it was too late. Kronos was already dissolving into dust before his eyes.

"No, I will not be defeated a second time! Gaea will kill you and all of your friends, and she will fully wake at last! You will never be safe!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save your dying declaration for someone who cares, Kronos."

As the last of Arachne/Kronos dissolved into nothing, Percy's vision went black and he knew no more.

"Percy Jackson, I command you to wake up! Gods, why can't you go two seconds without getting injured? Percy!"

"Annabeth, lower your voice; you are giving me a migraine from all this shouting."

"Well, I think that is your concussion and fractured skull talking. I warned you not to get another head injury, did I not? But I can't believe that you defeated Kronos again, that was incredible! Anyway, how are you feeling?"

"Not so great, is the world supposed to be spinning like this? I feel worse than I did when Jason and I summoned that storm together. I don't think I can travel like this."

"I'll carry you, because these trees keep trying to cut you so we can't stay here, and I don't know if I can hold them off anymore."

"Wait, Annabeth. Are there any lakes or ponds anywhere down here, because that would heal me instantly, it would even be better than nectar or ambrosia. Because these trees have to be getting their moisture from somewhere."

"True, true. I haven't seen any water down here, but we'll keep an eye out for it. Now come here, we have to get going."

As Annabeth scooped Percy into her arms, he cried out and moaned. Unwillingly, tears also leaked from his eyes, and that's how Annabeth knew how much pain he was in. The Seaweed Brain she knew would never show pain if it wasn't unbearable. The fact that he was feeling it now, broke her heart. All this was plainly showed on her face as she gently soothed Percy.

"Oh, Seaweed Brain. Come here, I promise I will find a lake or something so you can get well! I will carry you so you don't have to hobble anymore, how about you sleep while I carry you, so you don't have to be in pain."

"It's fine, Annabeth. Really I don't mind walking or hobbling. You shouldn't have to do this all by yourself."

"Percy, you just single-handily defeated Kronos while he was possessing Arachne while you are seriously injured; I'm pretty sure I can handle carrying you while you sleep."

"Alright, but the second there's any sign of a monster, I want you to wake me up immediately, ok?"

"If that's what it takes to get you to sleep, then fine. Now sleep!"

As Percy's eyelids instantly drooped, she picked him up into her arms and hoisted him onto her back. He was much lighter than she expected, no heavier than her missing backpack. This made her wonder when the last time he had a decent meal, and vowed to get him to eat something.

Within seconds, Percy's head slumped in exhaustion and he was out like a light.

Percy was hoping not to dream as he fell asleep, but the universe had to prove once again that it hated him. His dream though was more strange rather than scary, because it was a lot like his empathy link with Grover, but this time it was with Nico.

Nico was fighting a huge green serpent with his black scythe while Jason stood beside him, calling down lightning. They were on board the Argo II which was sailing in the ocean, and it looked like they were having a hard time at sea without Percy's ability to create hurricanes and manipulate the waves.

Finally, Jason brought down one last lightning strike to daze the serpent, and Nico was able to cut off its head. Exhausted, the two slumped against the mats against the wall, and looked down at the body of the serpent they just killed.

For a few moments, neither said anything to each other. After a while, Nico broke the silence and spoke to Jason in a tired voice.

"Where is Percy when you need him? He would have been able to slay that thing no problem; I miss him and Annabeth so much."

"I know, Nico. We all miss them but we have to keep going and go to Greece to the Doors of Death. Where, hopefully, they will be meeting us and we can put all of this behind us. You could feel if they died, couldn't you?"

"Um, about that, Jason; we kind of have a problem."

"Nico, I swear to the gods, if you have been lying about the fact that you can sense death, I am going to kill you."

"No, no, I would never lie about something like that. It's just, um, how do I say this? Well, you know that empathy link that Percy has with Grover?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I was able to set up a thing like that with Percy and myself. Now I can be positive on whether or not he has died; but there is a drawback, where Grover would die if Percy died, I would just be in extreme pain. But at the cost of not dying, I also feel when Percy gets injured. I don't feel all the pain he does, which right now is very good, but I know when he is injured and where. So right now, I know he isn't looking too good."

"Nico, what has happened to Percy and Annabeth?"

"Well, I can sense Percy's more powerful thoughts and feelings so I know for a fact that Annabeth is fine and that her ankle is healed. But Percy himself, is another story. From what I can tell, the carnage of Arachne's chamber fell on them and Percy shielded Annabeth from the debris, so he took all the hits. Next, was the landing from the fall. Again, Percy shielded Annabeth so he, and he alone, took the impact. Most recently, he battled and killed, Kronos while Kronos was possessing Arachne. Now after-"

"Wait a minute, Nico. Percy battled Kronos a second time, and he's still alive?"

"Yes, but just barely."

"What do you mean? How is Percy injured?"

"He has 9 busted ribs, a broken right shoulder, a badly broken right wrist, a shattered left ankle, a crushed right kneecap, a broken left hip, a terrible concussion, and a fractured skull. Percy also has more than two dozen long deep gashes on his chest, sides, and back."

"Percy! Oh no, that can't be good! How did he battle Kronos like that?"

"I have no idea but like I said before, Percy is the most powerful demigod I know. Think about it though, he shielded Annabeth both from the debris and the fall while he was already injured. If anyone can muster up the strength after all that and still find the energy and the willpower to beat Kronos, Percy can. We are just going to have to trust Annabeth to look after him, and make sure he doesn't die."

"If we ever see them again, we are never letting them out of our sight, agreed? I don't care how many waves Percy conjures up, he always has to have someone with him."

"Annabeth is with him now. But jeez Jason, you are starting to sound like a mom."

"While I'm very happy that he's not alone, Annabeth doesn't have any power except her brains, which isn't much use in a fight."

"True, but I would never want that girl as my enemy. Wait, has Piper told you if she has seen anything new in her knife?"

"She said that Octavian has told everyone to kill Percy on sight if they ever see him; he said to kill all the other Greeks and myself too, but he seemed fixed on killing Percy."

"Gods, Percy just can't catch a break these days."

"I know, right! But Octavian seemed off, well more off than usual, and trust me I've known the guy for years at Camp Jupiter."

"I wonder why. Anyway, we should probably call a meeting with the others, so I can tell him what's happened so far to Percy and Annabeth."

"They really aren't going to like how bad off Percy is right now."

"I know, but they need to know about the empathy link between us, it could come in handy."

With that, Percy saw Jason and Nico stand up and call a meeting with Hazel, daughter of Pluto, Piper, daughter of Aphrodite, Frank, son of Mars, Leo, son of Hephaestus, and Coach Hedge, the satyr. After that, the dream disappeared and everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

** Chapter 3- Annabeth**

Annabeth Chase watched Percy's eyes close in exhaustion and she could practically see the moment he passed out. Even in his sleep, he looked so handsome, but his loveable features were contorted with pain. She knew that he was in more agony than he let on.

Seaweed Brain was under the delusion that he needed to protect her from everything that was down here, but this idea was causing him so much pain. When she saw his injuries for the first time, she nearly fainted herself because they were so gruesome and painful looking.

She saw his 9 broken ribs poking out of the gash on his side, the deep cut and knot on his head where he fractured his skull, how jagged his right wrist bone looked, how swollen his broken right shoulder is, how his left foot pointed to an angle that was just wrong, how his left hip bone jutted out to the side, and finally how his right knee cap was twisted to a nauseating angle to the side. Furthermore, how the 24 gashes still leaked blood from them and how the skin around them was turning black from all the dried blood on it.

_Oh, Seaweed Brain_, Annabeth thought to herself, _I wish I could do something to relieve the pain for you. You must be in so much agony right now, and I can't even help you. Wait a minute, maybe I can._ With that, Annabeth set off to find a lake to heal Percy.

After a half hour or so of searching, she finally came across a stream with running water! The water looked like it normally did everywhere else, so Annabeth figured there couldn't be anything wrong with the water down here. _Yes! Now I can heal and help my Seaweed Brain!_, she thought giddily to herself.

Annabeth was so overjoyed that she sprinted back to where she had left Percy, and she was relieved at the fact that he was still there and alive so that meant no monsters had attacked him. She hesitated on waking him when he so desperately needed the sleep to heal his bones, but she rationalized it with that the water will heal him. So she bent down and did her best to gently shake Percy out of his deep sleep.

It took a few moments for him to regain consciousness but once he heard that she found water, he was immediately awake and alert.

"Annabeth, that's fantastic! How far away is it?"

"It's not too long of a walk, we should make it there in like a half hour."

"Let's head out then, I can't wait to be back in my natural element, where I have power."

With that, Percy struggled to stand up so he could walk by himself, but again, his sea-green eyes crossed, which is how she knew he was in agony, and he turned a nasty shade of green. Percy groaned in pain and his knees buckled out from under him. She barely caught him before he hit the ground again.

"How about I carry you again, you obviously can't walk."

"I would argue with you, but even I have to admit that I am in no shape to walk to the stream you found."

"See, you're learning not to argue with me. Now come here."

Annabeth was really glad that he didn't weigh a lot, because she wasn't sure if she could carry him if he did. As she hoisted him on her back, she saw that there were things starting to come out of the trees, so she set off at a jogging pace.

They arrived at the stream sooner than she expected, which was good because by the look of Percy, she knew that each step she took, caused him unbearable pain. When Annabeth saw the stream in the distance, she started sprinting and she heard a muffled groan of pain against her back. Now that they were here, she couldn't wait to get Percy in the water and heal him.

Annabeth helped Percy take off his clothes, and when she did, she barely suppressed a scream of shock as she saw his wounds. They looked even worse than from the last time she saw them, and she didn't see how Percy was still conscious with the agony from those wounds. He whimpered a little as each article of clothing was taken off but Annabeth knew he was thinking of the relief he would feel in the water.

Once all his clothes were off except his underclothing, which she didn't want to take off, Annabeth helped Percy into the stream. At first, she thought everything was going well, but naturally, that was when everything had to go wrong.

When Annabeth saw Percy's face contort in excruciating pain, she knew something was wrong. But only when he screamed at the top of his lungs and started sobbing uncontrollably and thrashing to get out of the stream, did she reach into the stream to pull him out. The stream felt fine to her but obviously it wasn't fine for Percy, judging by the welts and burns appearing on his face and chest.

"Oh gods, Percy! What happened?"

Percy was barely able to respond, his face so twisted with pain, but finally he was able to get a few words with the minable amount of gasps in between.

"The (gasp) water is (gasp) poison for (gasp) Poseidon and his children; (gasp) the giant who's born to oppose Poseidon (gasp) blessed it. All (gasp) water down here is acid for me."

As Percy's last word sunk in, Annabeth saw his eyes roll up into his head so she could only see the whites for a second and then he was out.

"Percy, I am so sorry; I just wanted to help you but of course, I just managed to hurt you even more. Why, oh why, can't we catch a break anywhere?"

After she spoke, Annabeth started sobbing on Percy's unconscious face; but that was when she heard the voice behind her.

"So we meet again Percy Jackson; it seems once again, you are in need of my help, but I must say I did not expect to meet you down here. Ah, and you must be Annabeth Chase, I have heard so much about you from Percy from the short time he stayed on my island."

When Annabeth heard her name, she spun around only to see a beautiful girl who had an ageless face, was staring sadly at the unconscious Percy on the ground. Annabeth tried to place the girl and where she might have met Percy, but came up a blank. Suddenly though, a light bulb went off in her head and she knew exactly who this girl was, and a surge of jealousy ran through her veins.

"You're Calypso, Atlas's daughter. You nursed Percy back to health after he was blown out of that volcano three years ago. Why are you here?"

"After the Second Titan War, I was sentenced here to Tartarus, Annabeth Chase. But it's not so bad, if you know how to survive. Now what happened to Percy here? He doesn't look too good."

Annabeth didn't particularly want to tell Calypso anything, but she hoped that the titan's daughter could help him, so she reluctantly told Calypso everything that had happened to them down there.

When she finished, Annabeth looked up and saw that Calypso was deep in thought. After a moment's silence, Calypso spoke again, but this time her tone was thick with worry.

"Annabeth, I can't do much for Percy. What he really needs is rest and ambrosia and nectar, but I don't have any of those things. I wish I could help you, but the most I can conjure here is a wheelchair for you to push him in and some bandages. My powers are limited and though I can make mortal medicines appear, I cannot make godly remedies. I am truly sorry I cannot be of much more help."

"Can you make pain medicine appear, like morphine or Tylenol or something."

"I can try; alright, give me a minute."

As Annabeth watched, Calypso made a wheelchair, several packages of bandages and splints, a couple vials of morphine, and some tubes of burn ointment appear out of thin air.

"Thank you so much, Calypso! How can I ever repay you?"

"Just take care of Percy for me Annabeth, make sure he doesn't die. That is all the payment I need. Oh, two more things; one, let me make these wheels unpopable so they aren't punctured by anything sharp down here. Two, does this belong to you?"

Calypso held out her lost backpack behind her back. Annabeth was so surprised, she squealed in delight.

"Oh gods, thank you!"

"It's no problem, I thought it belonged to you. No one else I know of would carry a laptop everywhere they went."

When Annabeth opened the backpack she saw that she still had everything in there, including the few squares of ambrosia and nectar she had. She was so relieved that she finally had something to help Percy with, that she immediately bent down to feed it to him. It was a couple moments before she remembered Calypso again, but by the time she turned around again, Calypso was already gone.

Shaking her head at the fact on how fast people could disappear, she began to open up the boxes of bandages and splints. After she had all the medical supplies spread out in front of her, she set to work on helping Percy.

Annabeth wished she had some water to wash away all the dried blood, but she knew that if she dipped a cloth in the stream, it would just burn Percy, so she worked with slowly wiping it away with a dry cloth.

It was 2 hours later until Annabeth had done all she could to get Percy's wounds clean, and bandaged everything she could. After all his gashes were taken care of, Annabeth began to work on splinting everything. Amazingly, Calypso had known all the different kind of splints they needed, but before she could begin to wonder on her magic, Percy moaned in pain.

"Wh-what's going on? Where did all these things come from?"

"Shh, Percy. Stay still while I splint your broken bones, but if you must know, Calypso came to visit while you were unconscious."

"Calypso? What is she doing down here?"

"She said she got sentenced here after the Second Titan War, but she was able to make all these medical supplies appear for you. Now please, stay still!"

Percy still looked confused but he knew better than to question Annabeth, so he lied as still as he could on the ground so she could continue to mend him.

It took a while for Annabeth to apply and properly set all the splints, but finally, she was done. One look at Percy and she knew he wasn't going to be walking anywhere any time soon. Almost every inch of his body was either covered in ointment, bandages, or a splint. Satisfied that all his injuries were properly taken care of, she reached into her bag for the ambrosia and nectar.

The ambrosia and nectar were rather crushed, but they were better than nothing. Annabeth began to break the crushed ambrosia into pieces so they were bite-size and easily chewable for someone who had burns all over his face. After she had finished breaking the ambrosia, Annabeth began to attempt to feed it to Percy.

"Annabeth, no. We should save that for later, who knows how long we'll be down here."

"Percy Jackson, do not try to be brave here. You are getting this medicine right here and right now. Now open your jaw or I will force it open."

With a huge sigh, Percy opened up his mouth so Annabeth could force the ambrosia down his throat. After she had made sure he swallowed 3 whole squares of ambrosia, she opened up the nectar so he could drink it. Annabeth knew that she shouldn't feed him a lot because too much of this stuff could literally burn them up, so she only risked pouring 2 sips of nectar down his throat.

After Annabeth was convinced Percy had swallowed the god's food, she sat back on her heels. She could literally see some of the pain leave Percy's eyes as the ambrosia and nectar began to work. He even managed a weak smile for her benefit, and she knew he would be alright.

"Alright Seaweed Brain, time to get going. I will push you in the wheelchair, so you don't have to walk anywhere, but this time, it won't cause you so much pain."

"Thanks, Wise Girl. But you really should sleep a little before we start out again."

"Fine, wake me up in a half hour."

"Sleep tight."

As Annabeth fell asleep, she saw Percy surveying his injuries and all the splints and bandages that were on his body. Before she was completely asleep, Annabeth wondered what she would be thinking if those were her injuries.

It seemed to Annabeth that she was only asleep for 2 seconds before Percy was shaking her awake and saying that he heard some monsters approaching in the distance. She groggily sat up and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes.

"How long was I asleep?

"About 3 hours."

"Percy! I told you to wake me up after a half hour!"

"Yeah, but you looked so peaceful while you slept."

"That's very flattering Percy, but don't do that again, especially when you are in no shape to defend us!"

"Alright, alright! Jeez, don't we have to get going anyway?"

"Yes, yes we do. Here, I'll help you into the wheelchair."

As she helped lower Percy into the wheelchair, she saw that some of his burns healed a little while she had slept. She wished that all his injuries would heal over night, but she knew it was a miracle that the burns had healed at all, considering nothing ever went well for them.

The wheelchair was very easy to navigate and was light-weight so it barely felt like she was pushing anything. When they got to more barbed wire, she was happy to see that Calypso's enchantment of the wheels worked, and they didn't pop.

Percy kept his sword out at all times as Annabeth was wheeling him, and she made sure she had her bronze knife with her in case she ever needed to use it. They traveled that way for about 3 days straight, only stopping to eat and sleep.

By the 3rd day, Percy's burns had healed enough to not keep the ointment on 24/7 and he could even hobble along for a little while with just the aid of makeshift crutches. While his hipbone still jutted out at a very awkward angle, so Percy couldn't move it too well, and his kneecap and ankle remained shattered and dislocated, he could know feel his feet. This, Annabeth knew was a pretty good sign that the bones were mending themselves. However though, his shoulder and wrist still had to remain immobile, but Annabeth was just thrilled that Seaweed Brain was slowly healing.

While she knew that some of this was from Percy's determination to get better, Annabeth realized that most of his progress was due to the ambrosia and nectar he was consuming daily. Unfortunately, they officially had run out of both ambrosia and nectar, which meant Percy now had to begin healing like a regular mortal.

To make matters worse, his gashes had barely begun to stop bleeding around the clock and only had just started to clot. Furthermore, Annabeth could tell that his ribs hadn't even begun to mend themselves and they were still badly broken and fractured. She was beginning to wonder how Percy's concussion was healing because she kept seeing his eyes frequently crossing themselves when he stood up from his wheelchair.

But to Percy's credit, he never let his pain show. Whenever he made an effort to stand, which was quite frequently, and his eyes crossed and his face went green, Percy always managed a weak smile and hobbled along on his splints, casts, and bandages, before she shoved him back in the wheelchair. Annabeth knew that it pained him not to be able to walk and protect her, so she tried not to give him a hard time when he struggled to get to his feet.

After Percy's battle with Kronos/Arachne, their journey was relatively monster-free. Sure, there had been some attacks from minor monsters, but nothing that had overwhelmed them so far. Just as Annabeth was thinking this, she was contradicted by something that normally wouldn't have been a problem, if they hadn't been in Tartarus.

The challenge that was before them was a deep river that flowed with the anti-Poseidon water; the other side of the creek was 50 yards away where there were giant boulders with moss all over them, to prevent someone crossing to get a proper grip on them and the river ran as far as the eye could see. Annabeth's face instantly paled in worry and concern, not for her, but for Percy. She looked down at him in the wheelchair, and saw that his face had turned that awful shade of green again as if he was imagining the pain he would experience if he swam across the river to the other side.

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem for them, Percy being the son of Poseidon and all, so that meant he could control the water and just normally lift them to cross the creak, but with this water being blessed by the giants, he couldn't possibly maneuver the river to help them. Also as if the world couldn't prove that it hated them enough, it had to make the other side too far away to jump across but also had to put boulders so no one can jump. Furthermore, the river was too deep, so she couldn't possibly swim across and carry Percy at the same time.

Most people who crossed the stream just swam across, or some probably leapt across and grabbed onto the boulders and pulled themselves up and just kept continuing on their journey.

For them though, if Percy swam he would burn severely and cause himself extreme pain. But, if he jumped across, even if he managed to get across the river without getting wet with acid-like water, Percy couldn't possible lift himself over the boulders with 9 busted ribs, a broken shoulder, a fractured hip, a shattered ankle, a broken and bent knee, and a badly broken wrist.

They were impossibly stumped.


	4. Chapter 4

** Chapter 4- Hazel**

"Nico di Angelo, why on earth would you do this? Do you realize the kind of danger you have put yourself in?" shrieked Hazel, daughter of Pluto.

"Hazel, I know you're upset because you're Nico's sister, but it's good that we can find out what is happening to Percy and Annabeth when we can't be with them," reasoned Jason Grace, son of Jupiter.

"I know, Jason! But what if Percy gets himself killed? Then what would happen? Nico would be in such excruciating pain from Percy's death, I doubt he would be able to get a word out!"

"Hazel, how could you? Are you actually blaming Percy for this? How can you imply that Percy did this to himself and he forced Nico to create the empathy link?" demanded Jason's girlfriend, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite.

"Nico, Jason, and Piper are right, Hazel. This way we will know immediately if Percy has died, and Annabeth too, since Percy's grief would be so strong, Nico would surely pick up on it. We know now that Annabeth is safe and looking after Percy and Percy is doing all that he can to get to the Doors of Death to meet us!" piped up Leo, son of Hephaestus.

This surprised everyone because Leo hardly ever spoke anymore, he was too wallowed with grief from their lost friends and trying to make these new sphere things work, claiming there were very valuable weapons. Finally, the last demigod spoke.

"While I think Nico should have talked to us before he set up this empathy link between himself and Percy, there is nothing we can do about it now. If this empathy link is anything like Percy's and Grover's connection, then if Percy is in grave danger from another battle, we will know and also know what and who is supporting Gaea. I am willing to bet my fire stick that there is a spy somewhere, giving information to Gaea and trying to divide us," advised Hazel's boyfriend, Frank, son of Mars.

At this Jason, Piper, and Nico exchanged uneasy looks as if they knew someone who could be the spy but they weren't sure if they should tell everyone.

"What do you three know that you aren't telling the rest of us? We are a team here people, not just individual people! If I get another whiff of secrets here, I'll start hitting people with my club!" exclaimed Coach Hedge, the satyr who was also their chaperone.

Since neither Jason, Piper, nor Nico wanted to get hit with a club, which they knew Coach Hedge would do if they didn't say what they knew; they told everyone what Piper had seen in her knife about the romans.

"We saw Camp Jupiter begin planning their war strategy on Camp Half-Blood. It seems that Octavian has managed to wiggle the spot of praetor and he was making a speech to everyone about us. He said that while they should strive to kill ever Greek demigod they see, and also kill myself, Hazel, and Frank if they saw us, but Octavian made a specific emphasis on them killing Percy. Octavian was practically ordering everyone in the camp to hunt Percy down and kill and torture him in every way possible.

"Now I have known Octavian for a long time at Camp Jupiter, and he is just a huge loser most of the time, but when I saw him, he seemed creepier and weirder than usual. Piper and I also saw Reyna in the background in the kinfe, while she was looking like she wanted to murder Octavian for giving these orders; she did nothing to stop him. But I know that she will do her best not to kill the least amount of people possible, so we know she isn't fooled by Octavian like everyone else."

"Guys, we can't go crazy trying to determine who is the spy for Gaea, because we will just drive ourselves paranoid and insane. But we should agree that we shouldn't have any secrets from each other, including our powers. So I vote that we all share our godly parenthood, in both Greek and Roman, and what powers we possess. Even though we mostly know each other's strengths, we don't really know everyone's weaknesses, which is just as important. Do we all agree that we should share?" questioned Hazel.

There was a murmur of agreement of everyone, even if it wasn't that enthusiastic.

"Alright, who wants to go first?"

"I may as well, considering my dad is the head Olympian. So you all know my father is Jupiter, god of the sky, or some of you may know him as Zeus. Because of this, I can control lightning and electricity, which you have all witnessed, and with Percy's help, we have called upon major storms that resemble hurricanes. During these storms, Percy and I can control the winds, weather, and waves; so we are pretty much unstoppable then. But my weakness is related to my powers, and Percy's, because they drain us so much sometimes that we collapse on the spot, so that's why I try to only use my stronger powers when necessary. Also, my preferred weapon is my coin that flips either into a sword or lance and it conducts electricity."

"Thank you, Jason. Now if you saw me, I doubt you would think I am a daughter of Aphrodite, or Venus for the Romans, but I am. I may not like to dress up and put on make-up, but my power of charm speak is something very few children of Aphrodite possess. I can persuade almost anybody or anything to do something; sometimes I'll even do it without realizing it. I don't have an official weakness or anything because charm speak doesn't sap my strength, but if I had to pick a weakness I guess it would be that I care too much about people, especially Jason and my father, who is a mortal, which makes myself an easy target for blackmail. Also I don't really fight so I use my dagger for a seeing glass where we can see other people, like the Romans."

"Nice, Piper. I'm really not a fighter too but I am really good with my hands so I can fix and invent a lot of mechanical things, because I am the son of Hephaestus, or Vulcan to others. However, I do have another power and that is that I can control fire with my hands and not get burned; while this power is useful sometimes for light and heat, I prefer my gift with my hands rather than my power over fire. My weapon is my magical tool belt where I can pull anything that you would find in a mechanic's shop from it. But you should all know that how Gaea tries to target me, she killed my mom when I was 8 and has been trying to get me to abandon you guys on this quest, but know I would never do that."

"Leo, we are all here for you and each other, no one should ever forget that. I am a satyr or faun as the Romans know my kind; I don't really know my parents but know they aren't gods, and my power and weakness is battling with my club, which is also my weapon of choice," satisfied with his piece, Coach Hedge sat down.

"My father is Mars, or Ares for the Greeks here, but I am also very distantly related to Poseidon, so I cannot travel by air without getting blasted out of the sky by Jupiter. That however, is not my weakness; my weakness is that my life relies on a fire stick not burning. When I was a baby, Juno (Hera) appeared and warned my mother and grandmother in time before it completely burned and I would have died. I know now that once the stick completely burns, I will die. But my greatest power is being a shape-shifter who can turn into any animal as long as I know what it is. Also, I'm not that bad with a bow and arrow if I can't ever change shape."

"Frank, we will be very careful to keep you from rogue fires. I am the daughter of Pluto, known as Hades to the Greeks, so I am a child of the underworld and the Big 3, but I was born before the pact was made not to have any more children. How is this possible? I was born in the 1930's and I died in the 1940's by trying to stop Alcyoneus, the eldest giant, from rising then. I spent 70 years in the Fields of Asphodel until when Thantos was kidnapped and the Doors of Death opened, and Nico came and helped me escape and join the world of living. When we freed Thantos though, he and my dad turned a blind eye and let me live. But I have a curse as the daughter of Pluto.

"As far as I know, I am the only person to have this curse because my mother was greedy and wished to possess all the riches of the underworld. So my curse is that anytime I get agitated or scared, diamonds, rubies, and jewels of all sorts appear but if anyone takes them, they are doomed. Furthermore, I am like Piper, and am not much of a fighter or skilled with any weapons."

"Hazel, we will be sure not to touch any diamonds you made appear and know we will help you with your curse after all this is over. Now I know you guys are aware that I am Hazel's brother, or half-brother really, but I am a Greek demigod, son of Hades, not Pluto. But like Hazel, I was born during World War II, though my sister, Bianca, now dead, and I were hidden in a magical hotel that froze time for us where we didn't age. I have no control of riches like Hazel does, and I would not want to, but my powers are of the dead. While I can make skeletons rise from the ground and do my bidding, but like Jason, my power drains my strength a lot so I can only do it when absolutely necessary. When I do not fight with my skeletons, I fight with my black scythe created from the underworld itself. My weakness is like all of Hades'/Pluto's, which is we have trouble letting go of grudges and anger, like our dad.

"That was about me, but I think we should also know Annabeth and Percy; and since I've known them the longest, I think I should tell you guys about them. Annabeth was, no _is_, a daughter of Athena, also known as Minerva. Her weakness or fatal flaw is what she and her mom called it, is that she is too proud sometimes and can't admit she's wrong. While Annabeth does not have any magical powers, she is very smart and wise, and diffidently not someone you would want as your enemy. I know Athena gave her a magic cap of invisibility that makes her invisible when she puts it on, but I am not sure if she still works or if she has it with her. The weapon Annabeth always uses is a bronze dagger, which she got when she was 7 and is very useful and dangerous in her hands.

"Now that we've covered Annabeth, everyone needs to get to know Percy. Like I have said before, and will say again, Percy is the most powerful demigod I know, and all his enemies and opponents should run in terror of facing him in battle. I would all hope you know that Percy is the one and only demigod son of Poseidon (Neptune) that is still alive today, because Poseidon broke the pact only once, unlike Zeus/Jupiter. The reason why there was a pact in the first place was because Zeus's, Hades', and Poseidon's children are too powerful, which Jason, Thalia (daughter of Zeus and Jason's older sister), Hazel, myself, and Percy prove. All of Percy's powers come from the sea and his dad, so he has many abilities.

"Percy can manipulate the ocean or water in general really. Unlike Jason, Percy can create his own hurricane without any help of others although he cannot call lightning and control the winds like Jason; but since Poseidon is the god of storms and earthquakes too, you really do not want to make Percy angry. Remember the eruption of Mount St. Helens last year, which actually woke Typhon. Yeah, Percy made that volcano explode when the telekhines attacked him and tried to burn him by throwing lava. So whenever Percy gets mad or upset, he can make things happen with water or the weather, to an extension. I must say this is Percy's most useful ability, but he can also talk to horses or any creature related to the horse, since Poseidon created them out of sea foam when he and Athena created the chariot. Also, Percy can talk to any sea creature if he desires to, which is why we've seen him talk to fish. Finally, Percy can breathe underwater; the only exception that I know of to that is the River Styx in the underworld, which Percy had to bathe in to get the Curse of Achilles when we battled Kronos but he lost when he crossed into Camp Jupiter, due to it being a Greek curse.

"His fatal flaw is the fact that he is sometimes too loyal to his friends, like when he held up the world at Mount Othrys to help Annabeth. We can see this again, by the fact he fell into Tartarus rather than let go of Annabeth and save himself. When Percy didn't fight with his power over water, he fought with Riptide, his pen that uncapped into a sword and that always returned to his pocket, no matter what. Now that is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

After Nico's long speech on himself, Annabeth, and Percy, everyone sat in stunned silence. Then all at once, chatter rang out, but two questions were spoken more than others.

"Where are we heading to now? Is Percy and Annabeth going to be there?"

Nico wanted to answer this question, Hazel could tell, so she cleared her throat for silence and held up her hand. It took a few moments, but eventually everyone stopped talking enough for Nico to respond.

"As I have told you before, the mortal side of the doors are in Greece, the foundation of the gods, which Gaea and the giants are going to destroy. Now for the Doors of Death to be sealed, they have to be closed from both the mortal side and the side in Tartarus. So Percy and Annabeth's goal is to travel and get across Tartarus, and meet us at the doors."

"Wait, if they are going to escape through the doors, how are they going to close them?"

"I honestly don't know the answer to that question, but we will face and solve it when the time comes."

Everyone sat in an uneasy silence, not sure how to respond to Nico's answer, because they know it could mean having to leave one of their friends in that awful place. But the group never had to respond, because just then a collision shook the whole boat and they heard a vicious neigh from the main deck.

_What was that?_ was the question everyone was wondering so they all jumped out of their chairs to run up the stairs.

When they reached the top step, they saw 4 horses looking very angry down at them. When they bared their teeth, they saw bits of bones and flesh in them and their eyes glowed an evil vivid red.

No one knew what to make of this, because their usual horse translator, Percy, was unavailable at the moment for translating. Only when they neighed and stampeded again, did Hazel realize what type of horses they were, and they were not at all friends of theirs.

"Guys, these are man-eating horses that used to belong to the giant Diomedes. Diomedes used to feed his prisoners to these horses to be consumed and die a painful death; after Hercules defeated Diomedes and fed _him_ to his horses, they became quieter and more peaceful but I guess they have resumed their old ways again."

"What are they doing here?"

"Well, I sense death on them so I think Diomedes has returned from the dead and is now working for Gaea, who sent them to eat us. I'm not Percy so I don't know if they will resume their old master's bidding again, but my guess is yes."

"How do we defeat them?"

"I have no idea, I think only Hercules knew."

"What is it about that guy? He has battled almost every monster, but he never saw to it to write it down for others!"

Hazel's and Nico's conversation was interrupted by an angry snort from one of the mares, who looked ready to eat them whole. With that, the mares charged at them, teeth ready.

Nico quickly drew his scythe from its scabbard, and stabbed the one charging at Hazel. With a look of sheer hatred from its red eyes, the man-eating horse disintegrated into dust.

Hazel looked over her shoulder and saw that while Jason was electrocuting the horse he was battling and Frank had turned into a phoenix and was pecking out his horse's eyes, Leo was losing his battle because he was trying to burn his mare with his hands but the horse just kept dodging the flames.

Apparently Nico had seen this too, because he sprinted toward Leo and lunged at the mare, stabbing it in its rib cage. The horse didn't even have time to give a look of hatred this time before it was dust.

Frank had killed his horse by blinding it and then transforming into a lion and pushed it overboard. But apparently the horses were immune to electricity because Jason's lightning hadn't even dazed it and was still lunging at Jason with its teeth. However, Jason was getting more and more tired with each lightning strike and was quickly becoming overwhelmed.

Nico made to help again, but suddenly there was a boom of thunder and a crack of brilliant lightning filled the whole world, and as the light faded, Mars, the Roman god of war, stood on the ship's hull, carrying a golden javelin.

Before anyone could react to the god's sudden appearance, Mars threw his javelin like an expert, and it caught the horse in its head, seconds before it sunk its teeth into Jason. With one last angry neigh, the final horse crumbled into dust, and joined its siblings in Tartarus.

"Well, son of Jupiter, aren't you going to thank me for saving your neck?" demanded the god of war.


	5. Chapter 5

** Chapter 5- Jason**

Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Coach Hedge, Frank, Hazel, and Nico di Angelo all stared in shock at the god that had just appeared before them and killed a man-eating horse.

"Kid, I'm not going to ask you again, how about a thank-you for saving your ungrateful neck?"

Jason's mind was barely processing that the Roman god of war, Mars, had just demanded a thank-you from him. His thoughts were still cloudy from his recent fight with the vicious horses, and the fact that Mars had just appeared suddenly before them with a strike of lightning and a clap of thunder. Finally, his mind was able to register the god's furious stare at him and he tried to show the appreciation Mars was looking for.

"Th-thank-yyou, M-mars, my l-lord."

Flinching on how weak his voice sounded, he swallowed and tried again.

"My lord, I very much appreciate you saving me from that man-eating horse."

"That's better! I mean us gods can't be expected to help you heroes without some show of gratitude! Now, who do we have here, I smell a mixture of both Roman and Greek blood that's giving me a migraine!"

"Well, you know I am the son of Jupiter, but this is Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, Coach Hedge, satyr, Frank, you know, since he's your son, Hazel, daughter of Pluto, and Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. You see, we are the demigods of the Prophecy of Seven."

"Which prophecy?"

"The Prophecy of Seven. It goes like

_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,_

_To storm or fire the world must fall_

_An oath to keep with a final breath,_

_And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death_"

"I remember the prophecy now! So it clearly states seven half-bloods, but there are only 6 demigods here, where's the last one of you?"

"We are actually missing two demigods, not one, my lord. Nico here though is very brave on leading us to Greece where the mortal side of the Doors of Death is located at, is not a demigod of the prophecy. The two demigods we are missing are Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Oh, I know that kid! Never did show me any respect either in my Greek form, Ares, or this Roman form! Where have he and that girl gone to anyway, if they're not here?" demanded Mars.

"I don't mean any respect, my lord, but don't the gods know what has happened? Especially Neptune and Minerva, since Percy and Annabeth are their children?"

"Jupiter has cut off all visions and dreams us gods could receive from our children to desperately try to lull Gaea and the giants back in their sleep. But it is not working and was destined never to work in the first place! Now we are supposed to be completely cut off from the heroes, but many gods, including myself, are refusing to listen to Jupiter's orders and have come down here to visit our children. But for the gods that have very useful children, such as me, Minerva, and Neptune, Jupiter is keeping us at a very close distance. I have barely escaped his eyes to make this visit down here, but I am being joined shortly by-" Mars was suddenly cut off by another deafening crack of thunder and a blinding strike of lightning.

Then just as suddenly as Mars had appeared before them not moments ago, Diana (Artemis), Minerva (Athena), and Neptune (Poseidon) stood now before them. Diana carried her famous silver bow and arrow and was dressed for the hunt, Minerva was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt but had a fiery and fierce look in her eyes that probably could have even made Hercules back down, and Neptune stood in a fisherman's outfit carrying his powerful trident. Each god and goddess had a flickering glow around them that switched between orange and purple every couple of seconds.

Jason just blinked once but that was all it took to see the god's appearances change. Though Diana and Neptune was still dressed the same, Mars know had a shield and a sword strapped to his hip and a dangerous look on his face that made Jason want to pick a fight, and Minerva was now dressed in full body armor.

After a couple of moments of the 2 gods and 2 goddesses changing looks, Jason began to realize that what he was witnessing was their personalities clashing. Their Greek and Roman sides were sometimes so different; they looked and behaved like completely different people.

"I see you have noticed the conflict between our Greek and Roman personalities that is causing us to act in ways we normally wouldn't and have excruciating migraines headaches. Of course we have the accursed Juno (Hera) to thank for our children fighting amongst themselves because she played her tricks in places that were not her business to meddle in. There is a reason why we have kept our different children apart and unaware of each other's existence, because every time they cross paths, it ends in a devastating civil war!" raged Mars.

"The next time I see Juno or Hera or whatever you want to call her, I am giving her a piece of both mine and the ocean's mind! How dare she kidnap my son in the middle of the night from his bed and wipe his memory and place him where he would never be completely welcome and safe!" seethed Neptune.

"I can't believe we are agreeing on something Neptune, but we will get her together! If it weren't for her, my daughter and your son wouldn't be missing, only to be found in no one knows where!" piped up Minerva, in complete agreement, which was a first, with Neptune.

"Wait a minute Minerva, these kids know something on the whereabouts of our children, don't you?" speculated Neptune, by reading the look of guilt on their faces.

"My lord Neptune, you see, something very awful has happened to Percy and Annabeth and we are actually traveling now to meet and save them from where they are. But know they are together and looking after each other."

"If they are missing, how do you know this? Where is my son?!" screamed Neptune.

Every demigod on the Argo II looked at each other, and they all nodded at Jason, signaling to him to tell the gods everything. So that is exactly what he did, he spoke to all the gods but mostly to Neptune and Minerva because it regarded their children. He told them how Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, the prophecy, the Doors of Death with the underworld and mortal world locations, and Nico's empathy link with Percy.

With each word he spoke, Diana and Mars got more and more wide-eyed and stunned, but those reactions were nothing compared to Neptune's and Minerva's reactions, they got so pale, they were as white as bone, and they both looked so frail and weak; Jason knew they were obviously thinking what could be happening to their children as they spoke.

"Percy! Oh my son! Please be all right! Please!" with that, Neptune started sobbing uncontrollably.

For several moments there was shocked silence that was just filled with Neptune's cries of despair for his son, and Minerva standing stiff as a statue looking as if her entire world was falling apart, which in a way, it was.

Jason thought to himself that if their grief for their friends were terrible, he could barely imagine what Neptune and Minerva were going through, hearing what had happened to their children and knowing what could be found in Tartarus. After a couple of minutes though, Neptune finally regained his composure and did his best to wipe his tears and clear his throat.

"We must help them at once! I don't care about it being incredibly dangerous for Olympians in Tartarus, I need to help my son and I won't just sit here and fearfully await news of his fate. Before we go to Tartarus though, we must go back to Mount Olympus and inform Jupiter of these recent events, I expect he will still let us go to Tartarus because this also concerns his son here, due to the prophecy. Even if he doesn't grant us permission, are you three going to accompany me to Tartarus or am I going by myself?" inquired Neptune.

"Neptune, I can't believe you even had to ask me. Of course I will go with you, I need to see my daughter as much as you need to see your son!" exclaimed Minerva.

"I can't believe I'm saying this because your kid has never been anything but a thorn in my side ever since he learned he was a kid of the Big Three, which he thought made him all high and powerful. Just because-"

"Mars! How dare you speak ill of my son when he is in such grave danger at this very moment! He has been braver than you or any god for that matter; he has defeated Kronos, not once but twice, taken the weight of the sky by himself, a punishment meant for the Titans, endured going into the River Styx, fought 2 giants, fallen into Tartarus, and protected the girl he loves no matter the personal risk to himself! He is the bravest person I know, and anyone who says differently, should never expect a safe travel overseas again!" thundered Neptune at Mars.

"Jeez Neptune, I didn't mean anything against your kid! But of course I will join you and Minerva into Tartarus, if you so desire," hastily amended Mars.

"That is better! Now Diana, are coming too?"

"It would be my pleasure, Neptune. For in fact, I am very fond of your son, for it was he that saved me from the weight of the sky when I was imprisoned! But before we leave, may I please mention to the young heroes here, my main reason for coming?"

"Go ahead, Diana"

With a nod of gratitude at Neptune, Diana turned to face myself and the others, who were listening and hanging onto the Olympians' every word.

"While I did not know of the exact whereabouts of Percy and Annabeth, I did have knowledge that they weren't with your group anymore. Both Percy and Annabeth have pure hearts, for nothing else would have allowed them to take the sky, so I knew they hadn't voluntarily abandoned you and the quest. Since Percy was your best fighter and Annabeth was your best strategist, I have sent my hunters to you in your time of need.

"Now I know Jason, Leo, and Piper have met my hunters, especially Thalia, daughter of Zeus but also my faithful lieutenant and Jason's sister. The hunters have helped and aided you free Juno from her prison in the winter while on the hunt for the wolves. Every one of my hunter has a heart of gold and nerves of steel, but they are fantastic fighters and excellent strategists as well. Please welcome them aboard and treat them with respect. I know they will aid you as much as they can on your quest; furthermore, they will be arriving here soon by Pegasus, so I would appreciate it if you please do not attack them."

"Thank you for sending these young heroes and friends of my son help, Diana. I must now warn you all, we have broken many rules by appearing on this ship, especially old ocean rules. This may cause mayhem and chaos with some of the sea creatures here, but I do not regret coming here, because if I did not, I would not have learned about my son's predicament. But if you do encounter angry sea creatures that were previously peaceful, please try to reason with them and explain what has happened. Until next time, young heroes."

With that, Neptune pounded his trident on the deck and he disappeared in a flash of light. The other Olympians did the same thing with their symbols of power, and in a moment, they were all gone with scorch marks in their place.

"Well, that was unexpected," said Leo, in an effort to break the silence.

"I, for one, feel much better that the gods are not listening to Zeus's odd order and are trying to help their kids. They all know that the giants cannot be defeated without gods and heroes working together. Also we know that the gods are trying to do whatever they can to help us. While this is dangerous, at least Poseidon can do what he can for Percy in Tartarus," reasoned Nico.

Before anyone else could say anything, suddenly a great dark cloud passed over the sun, turning everything black and spooky looking. The cloud did not pass for several moments, and only when they could see properly again, did Jason realize it had not been a cloud that had obscured the sun, but a large group of flying horses that were coming straight at them.


	6. Chapter 6

** Chapter 6- Jason**

Jason Grace stood dumbfounded at the ginormous flock of Pegasus flying straight at them. As they swooped in toward the deck, Nico di Angelo seemed to regain his composure and immediately drew his midnight black scythe from its scabbard.

"Jason! Can you summon lightning to blow them out of the sky?" inquired Nico.

"I could, but I'm not going to," said Jason, realizing who the flying horses were carrying on their backs.

"Why on earth not?" demanded Nico.

"Because we would have the goddess of the hunt and the moon for an enemy and one of the girls on the Pegasus can redirect my lightning back at us," calmly responded Jason.

"What are you talking about?" asked Nico.

"Weren't you listening to Diana or Artemis as you know her? She said she was sending her hunters to help and guide us on our quest to the Doors of Death and that they would be arriving very soon and would we please not attack them. Well, I think the Hunters of Artemis have arrived. Also, my sister, Thalia who is a daughter of Zeus, can summon lightning just as well as I can, so she would just shoot my lightning back to us, and she is also at the head of the pack," explained Jason.

"Fine, we won't attack, but I'm keeping my scythe out just in case. I don't trust your sister, no offense," huffed Nico.

Just as Nico finished, the flock of Pegasus and their riders landed with a loud thump on the deck. Jason saw about 21 girls, all of different ages, hopping off the winged horses, and turned to face Jason and his friends.

"Thalia!" exclaimed Jason, as he saw his sister hop off her Pegasus.

"Jason! Now this is what you and your friends have been using for traveling! It's a nice replacement after your bronze flying dragon, I must say, but it does seem as if Leo has used the dragon's old head for the mascot of the ship, interesting choice. But it's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Thalia! So Artemis sent you guys here to help us?"

"Help and guide, it's what we do. Now, tell me, what happened?" demanded Thalia.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean! What happened to Percy and Annabeth?"

"Oh, that. Thalia, can we discuss it later, I really don't want to talk about it now."

"Of course, but I am holding you to that promise, Jason! This is crucial to our journey, but I won't make you discuss it in front of all my hunters, though I will have to tell them once I have found out, but I can do that myself."

"Thanks, so how have you guys been? Had any cool adventures?" said Jason, in an attempt to make small talk, with everyone watching their conversation.

"This whole time we have been searching for Percy, and we were nearly at Camp Jupiter, when they left for war. We were very confused at this, so we decided to follow them, which we did until they reached New York and started planning their attack on Camp Half-Blood. At this, the hunters and myself immediately set out again to find Percy, because we figured that he didn't know and he would do all he could to help save his camp. Since our main connection to the world is through Artemis and she has become very withdrawn ever since we freed Hera, may the gods curse her, I suspect on Zeus's orders. But we can talk all about this later, just the two of us, ok?"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea to discuss this in private. Your hunters look exhausted, do you want to rest?"

"Yes please, we have been traveling for 2 days straight, trying to catch up to you."

"Alright, give me a second. Leo, how many guest rooms and spare rooms do we have open?"

"Let me see, we have about 7 rooms open, not including the stables but we are keeping the Athena Parthenos there, which is huge, so the stable's not exactly open and ready for people," piped up Leo.

"There's enough rooms for my Hunters; we don't mind sharing living space. Now, Hunters of Artemis, we are guests upon this ship! I fully expect you to treat our hosts and hostesses with respect and gratitude, and I am sure they will treat you in the same way, am I right?"

Thalia glared pointedly at Jason, as if daring him to contradict her, so he hastily nodded his head and spoke in the most assertive leader voice to his friends upon the Argo II.

"Everyone, the Hunters of Artemis are guests of ours and we should all do what we can to make them feel welcome. As Diana, or Artemis for the Greek demigods here, told us, they are here to help and guide us in our time of need, after losing Percy and Annabeth," instructed Jason.

Every one of his friends nodded back at him, especially Leo who had a huge crush on Thalia, meaning that of course they would welcome the Hunters of Artemis aboard the Agro II. After it was made clear that both the Hunters and demigods would treat each other nicely and with no rudeness, Thalia spoke again to her friends.

"Everyone go and find yourself 2 roommates and a room to sleep in; but be mindful of the ship, remember it's not yours to break and destroy. I will join you in a few minutes, after I have had a word with my brother here."

As the Hunters scattered to find a space and roommates, Thalia turned to Jason's friends, to address them next.

"I know all the Greeks here, but I don't know most of the Romans. Interesting to see that there has been no arguments here because that is what we do every time we meet. Anyway, so what are your names, your godly parent, and your powers?"

"Ok, I'll go first. I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, so I can summon lightning and fly."

"I'm Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, my power is charm speak, where I can make anyone and anything do what I want, just by telling them what to do."

"My name is Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, I am able to control fire but I prefer to work with my hands."

"As you can see, I'm a satyr and people call me Coach Hedge around here. While I don't have any special powers of a demigod, I'm pretty good with hitting people with my club. "

"Frank, son of Mars, also distantly related to Poseidon, I can shape-shift into any animal at will."

"I'm Hazel, daughter of Pluto, born during the 1930's though, long story, but my power is more like a curse because I can make any jewel appear but whoever touches it, is doomed."

"Well, you know me, Thalia because you were there when you rescued Bianca and me all those years ago with Percy and Annabeth. But I will introduce myself again anyway; my name is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, born 70 years ago but I was trapped in a magic hotel that stopped me from aging, like Hazel, long story. I can raise undead skeletons from the ground, being the son of the god of the Underworld."

"Thank you everyone. I am Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, and Jason's sister, not just half-sister on the godly side. We share the same parents, only our dad goes by different names, but that means I can control lightning as well, though I cannot fly, I am able to control the Mist that affects the mortals' minds. Also, I am Lady Artemis's lieutenant and the head of the Hunters.

"Now that we all are familiar with each other, know that my Hunters are not to be messed with. They are reluctant to be around so many males because they believe that they are not to be trusted, so they will use any reason to battle you. Know that they will easily win a battle, so do your best not to offend them. Please excuse Jason and myself now, as it is time for our private sibling chat."

With that, Thalia grabbed Jason's hand and dragged him away from his friends, and down into the meeting rooms. As soon as they had stepped into the room and made sure no one else was in there with them, Thalia slammed the door closed behind them and spun around at Jason with a fiery look in her eyes and her black hair standing up on its end with the electricity she was generating.

"Jason! What happened? Where are Annabeth and Percy? Answer me, dang it!" demanded Thalia, her voice getting higher and higher as it rose with fear.

"Thalia, it's a long painful story, that I'm not sure we have the time for."

In response, Thalia whirled around at the door, and locked it to make sure no one could come in and disturb them.

"There, now no one can get it and bother us and we have all the time you need to tell the story. Now I want to hear everything that happened, and don't leave out a single detail!"

So that is how Jason spent the rest of the hour, and a good part of the next. Recounting to Thalia about arriving at Camp Jupiter, Leo attacking the Romans (though he was possessed at the time by epholi), the epholi later possessing himself and Percy, making them attack each other, all the battles with monsters, his, Piper's, and Percy's near drowning experience in oil, and Annabeth's quest to follow The Mark of Athena, which lead to her fighting Arachne and her and Percy falling into Tartarus. He continued then with Nico's empathy link with Percy and through that, they knew vaguely what was happening to Percy and Annabeth, how he and Piper had seen Octavian command Camp Jupiter to hunt down Percy through Piper's looking-glass dagger, the man-eating horses attacking, and the Roman gods visiting the ship and learning of the two heroes' predicament.

When Jason finally finished describing everything that had happened to them, he was tired and his voice was horse from speaking so much. Thalia nodded at him but her face was almost as pale as Neptune's and Minerva's had been when they found out.

"Jason, this is not good, this is really not good. Not only have we lost two great friends, we have lost our best warrior and strategist/planner; us Hunters can fill in, but we are no substitute for Percy and Annabeth. Furthermore, the gods have broken their truce with Chiron's half-brothers of the sea and no doubt they will be enraged that Neptune himself appeared on this ship. Also, as we get closer and closer to Greece, Gaea will be stronger and there will be more monsters coming after us, so we need to be prepared at all times. But before I forget to tell you,-" Thalia was suddenly cut off when a loud thump shook the ship. It seemed once again that they had a visitor.

Before Thalia could stop him, Jason unlocked the door and clambered up the stairs to the main deck, flipping his coin to turn into a sword as he climbed. As he burst onto the deck, prepared to attack whatever had landed, he was face to face with a Cyclops.

This shocked Jason so much that he forgot he had a sword in his hand until it clattered to the ground, as the Cyclops ran at him; with its arms spread wide and his mouth stretched into a grin that had chunks of peanut butter in it.

"Wait, Tyson! Don't! Gods, why does he always do this when he meets someone?" cried a satyr from the side, who was climbing off a hippogriff in the sea and onto the ship, making a move to start running towards his one-eyed friend.

"It's fine, Grover, I'll pry Jason's new friend off of him. Come here, Tyson! Look, it's me, Thalia!"

"Thalia! You friend of Percy! Percy has many friends!" boomed the Cyclops in a rather loud voice.

"Yes, Percy is very popular. Has he picked up his scent anywhere, Grover, or have you had any empathy-link dreams?"

"Sadly, no to both questions. Tyson and I are looking everywhere for Percy, but there is no trace of him; it's as if he disappeared off the face of the world!"

"You're not far off from what has happened; I have just learned that Percy and Annabeth have fallen into Tartarus and are going to try to travel across and meet us at the Underworld side of the Doors of Death."

"Oh no! Percy!" the satyr cried, but his voice broke at the end, and his cry turned into a nervous bleat.

"Percy! Brother! We find and help you!" declared the Cyclops called Tyson.

"Brother?" inquired Jason, addressing Thalia.

"Tyson is Percy's half-brother. They are very close, and Tyson misses Percy more than anyone," explained Thalia.

"Half-brother? Wait, I don't want to know. How come Tyson and the satyr are here?"

"The satyr has a name you know, and that's Grover, Grover Underwood. I happen to be one of Percy's closest friends and everyone at Camp Half-Blood has been searching the entire world for Percy since he first went missing. But with Tyson's sense of smell and my tracking abilities, we are more likely to find him than any other search team," claimed the satyr named Grover.

"I see, well welcome aboard. Though we are a little short on living space right now, considering we also have the Hunters of Artemis staying here."

"It's fine, Tyson and I are used to roughing it. We can just sleep in a corner or something."

"Whatever you want to do, but hey, I'm really tired. It's been a long day filled with battling man-eating horses, Roman gods visiting, and the Hunters and you guys arriving. Do you mind if I go to bed now, and we talk in the morning?"

"Sure, go hit the hay, little brother. We will talk with everyone tomorrow."

Smiling at Thalia calling him little brother, he trudged down the stairs and into the sleeping corridors.

When Jason reached his bunk, he flopped down on the mattress and waited for sleep to come. He thought that sleep would have come easy to him, considering everything that had happened that day, but there were too many thoughts going through his mind at once.

Jason was ashamed to admit it, but he was jealous at the fact that Percy had so many people looking for him. He knew that when he had disappeared, the Romans had just accepted his being missing and barely looked for him, even though he was Praetor.

What didn't help Jason's jealousy was the fact that those man-eating horses had overpowered him because they were immune to lightning, his main power without Percy by his side to help him create a storm. It killed him to admit that Percy was stronger and more powerful than he was, but Jason knew it was true. If it was Percy fighting that horse, he could either have talked it into leaving or just called up a giant wave and drowned it.

When Jason thought this, he mentally shook his head, scolding his mind for thinking such a thing and being jealous of Percy who was trapped in Tartarus, barely holding onto life. After a couple of moments of these thoughts, Jason fell into a deep sleep where he dreamed what was happening thousands of miles away.

"Neptune! Mars! Diana! Minerva! I am astounded at you four, for so blatantly disobeying my direct orders not to have any contact whatsoever with the demigods! You have now disrupted the truce of the ichthyocentaurs, who barely agreed to the laws in the first place! We can have a full blown war on our hands with them because of your actions! Did you ever pause to consider this, Neptune?" roared Jupiter.

"As matter of fact, I did, Jupiter. But I had to know what happened to my son, and mind you, this all happened because of _your_ wife kidnapping my son and placing him with the other camp! Now that I know what has happened to Percy and where he is, I am going to Tartarus and helping him in every way possible, whether you like it or not!" countered Neptune.

"You most certainly will not! I forbid you to leave Mount Olympus for 100 years!" raged Jupiter.

"If you continue to ignore our children, Gaea will overthrow and crush us, and have the giants rule! You are a fool, to be ordering these things! Also, if you don't allow me to help my son, I will never help you in a war again. You will be on your own, and don't ever expect aid from the sea!" seethed Neptune.

"Jupiter, this is my daughter and Neptune's bravest son you are talking about. Percy battled Kronos himself and defeated him, twice, most recently while he is seriously injured! Annabeth is the smartest and wisest of my children, and she defeated Arachne, my greatest enemy, on brains alone! Now if you don't allow Neptune and myself to travel to Tartarus to aid our children, you will not only use the sea as your ally, you will also lose wisdom!" declared Minerva.

"Same goes for the hunt and the moon, lord Jupiter. Both demigods have done me a great personal service in the past, and I will not let them be destroyed when I can do something to aid them, as they have aided me," stated Diana.

"I'm going to have to agree with the sea and wisdom here, Jupiter. Though these kids are a pain sometimes, no offense Neptune and Minerva, but they saved Mount Olympus, and therefore our seats of power, last summer from the Titans and Kronos. We do owe them a debt to save them when it is in our power, especially when they are trying to help us again. So you forbid us from saving them, you lose the spirit of war. Every time you engage in battle, you will feel your strength leave you as war has," proclaimed Mars.

"You dare threaten me?" thundered Jupiter.

"Yes, you will lose sea, wisdom, the hunt/moon, and war spirit. I am also certain that once the other Olympians catch word on what has happened, they will follow our lead in withdrawing our abilities from you. Also think about what you would do if it was Thalia or Jason trapped in Tartarus. Would you stand by and watch them die, while knowing you could help them? No, you would not; so why are you doing this to Minerva and myself?" questioned Neptune.

This seemed to soften Jupiter a bit, because doubt flickered in his eyes and he took a long time before he spoke again, but this time in a tired, aged voice.

"Alright, Neptune and Minerva, you may help your children by traveling to the depths of Tartarus. But know that your powers are limited and I can't help you if you are in trouble, so please be cautious. Know that I am truly sorry about Percy and Annabeth though, so please do what you can to save them, as they have saved us in the past. Now go, before you waste any more time but return here immediately when you are finished, I want to know everything. Also, please spread the news to the other Olympians that I am withdrawing the order to not have any contact with the heroes, meaning each god and goddess can now communicate freely with their children."

With relieved smiles from Neptune, Diana, Mars, and Minerva that Jupiter had not unleashed his wrath on them, they disappeared from Mount Olympus with a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.

When Jason woke with a start and still heard the thunder ringing in his ears, he thought it was from his dream still, but when he heard shouts and swords being drawn, he knew something was wrong.

Jason leapt from his bed, still in his pajamas, and raced upstairs only to instantly find a spear pointed at his throat. He looked down at the holder and saw something that greatly surprised him. The holder was half-human and half-fish/horse, very similar to centaurs.

That is when Jason realized that the attackers were Chiron's, the centaur's half-brothers, the ichthyocentaurs who lived under the sea and had the shaky truce with Neptune and the other gods, which was broken when the gods visited the ship. Apparently, the ichthyocentaurs had found out about that little break in the truce and they wanted blood by the looks of it. But the blood that they wanted was Jason's friends' blood and his own.

As Jason tried to think on how to get out of this without injuring himself or his friends, the ichthyocentaurs pulled out lances, javelins, and even more swords to make it clear that there would be no talking, only death. But the deaths would be only of the passengers of the Argo II.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7- Percy**

When Annabeth Chase pushed Percy Jackson in the wheelchair up to the river in front of them, Percy immediately knew they were in trouble. It pained him to know that their problem could be easily solved if the river didn't flow with the poisoned water that carried the blessing of Polybotes, the giant born to oppose Poseidon, Percy's father.

Percy instantly paled at the thought of the pain swimming across or summoning a wave to carry them, would cause him. If he were to even so much as touch the water, his skin would burn severely due to the water being acidic to him. The one time he went into a creek down here in Tartarus, it caused him so much pain that he thrashed around like a maniac for Annabeth to get him out of the water and the second he was on land and not touching that horrible water, he passed out.

Normally, when he was in the regular world, Percy could control and breathe in any type of water. Not only that, but whenever he went into the water, it healed him from most injuries because the ocean, and water in general, is his natural element and where his power comes from. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here in Tartarus.

So now Percy and Annabeth were faced with an impossible choice. Swim or leap across the rapids; either option would cause Percy unbearable pain.

"Percy, are you ok? You look deathly pale so it looks like you're going to pass out on me any second," asked Annabeth, her voice thick with concern for her boyfriend.

After a weak nod to show that he was alright and he wasn't going to faint, Percy swallowed and managed to answer Annabeth with his voice, even though it was shaky.

"W-we have to cross this river, Annabeth, so what do you think is the best way?"

"Percy, no! We can turn back and try to travel around this river, there has to be another way!" cried Annabeth.

"You know as well as I do Annabeth, that any other way would take us weeks, if not months. The best thing we can do is try to cross this brook the safest way we can, and continue on our journey to the Doors of Death. Now in your opinion as a daughter of Athena, would it be best to swim across or leap?" demanded Percy.

"I still think we should try to find a way to go around this river, but I know it would take too long if we wanted to arrive at the Doors of Death relatively soon. So, thinking like Athena would think, I would have to say do your best to leap. You are relatively agile and fast so you can give yourself a decent head start, that is if you can manage to run on your broken hip, knee, and ankle; also, if you try to swim, your skin would immediately blister from the acidic water so I doubt you would be able to think clearly enough to get to the other side.

"The main problem with jumping across though, are the boulders on the other side. By the looks of your broken shoulder, shattered wrist, and busted ribs, I doubt you can climb a tiny rock, let alone a ginormous boulder. But if you leap, then I swim across, I can lift you up and over the boulders to flat land. Does this sound like it would work?" inquired Annabeth, her voice wavering with uncertainty.

"If you think that is what the best plan is, than that is what I think. Now before I lose my courage, let's do this," stated Percy, matter-of-factly.

After that declaration of faith, Percy started to rise out of the wheelchair, when he realized something.

"Annabeth, what are we going to do with our supplies? We can't possibly carry the wheelchair and your backpack across the river."

"We are going to have to leave the wheelchair here, but I can swim with my backpack on my back. Do you think you have healed enough to hobble a little?"

"If it means getting out of this awful place, I would sprint the rest of the way to the Doors of Death," declared Percy.

At this, Annabeth smiled at him, and his heart swelled to twice its normal size with the love he felt for her. Thinking this, he began to limp to about 100 yards away from the edge of this side of the creek, so he could get a head start to leap across.

When he felt like he was far away enough to gather enough momentum that would carry him over the rapids, Percy turned around to face his newest opponent, and took a deep breath. This deep breath made fire explode in his chest, where his 9 broken and fractured ribs were located, but he could not worry about the state of his broken bones now.

After another shaky breath to prepare Percy for the sprint and leap, he took off at full speed. The minute he started sprinting, Percy knew he and Annabeth had overestimated how much his broken bones had healed, because he felt the barely mended bones start to break again under the pressure of running. Not pausing to worry about this though, Percy continued to sprint to the edge where Annabeth had marked the spot where he should jump.

The second he reached the line, he bent his knees low like a gymnast preparing to hurtle. Percy immediately straightened up and began the dive over the humongous acidic river to the other side. But the universe just loved to make his life as hard and impossible as it could so naturally Percy's shattered ankle had to catch on a stray root and send him headfirst into the river.

Luckily he was close to the edge, but he was in the middle of a sideways flip so only his left knee and side up was plunged into the water, rather than his whole body. But that didn't matter to the nerves in his left side and knee because the instant they skimmed the water, they burned from the acid-like touch of it. Percy had too much going on to cry out from the agony of it, though that didn't stop his eyes filling with tears of pain.

All of this was going through Percy's mind as he sailed through the air, half of his body in the water, half of it out. Just when he thought he would never land on the other side, the right side of his body exploded in unbearable agony. He had reached the other side and the other side meant big painful boulders to climb to prevent falling back into the river.

The impact nearly caused Percy to black out due to his skull being slammed into the first boulder and he heard and felt it crack, causing many bright stars to appear in his vision. Before the stars could even clear, the rest of his body met the stone.

Amazingly the only thing that took a new blow was his right side of his ribs, compared to the left side that he previously injured. But that didn't mean Percy didn't reinjure anything again.

Percy's right shoulder and entire right arm took most of the blow and he felt the bones fracture in multiple places, and his shoulder completely dislocate from its socket, and Percy shrieked in pain. But ever heard of the expression of cold stimulates the mind? That is what happened to Percy's mind, only instead of cold, it was pain. The agony he was feeling reached a new level and his mind was suddenly amazingly clear as glass.

Just before the rest of Percy's body was about to hit the rocks, he shot his left arm out, which was his only uninjured limb, and grabbed onto the moss that had settled onto the boulders. The moss was soft and cushiony but terrible for gripping and ripped easily so Percy kept having to grab new handholds to prevent him tumbling back into the acidic river.

So Percy was hanging by his fingertips on the loose moss when he remembered the climbing classes back at Camp Half-Blood, and he made a mental note to thank Chiron for the vigorous training, if he survived this. Percy wrapped the moss around his left hand to ensure a better grip and he started swinging to gather momentum to carry him over the boulder. After a couple of swings, Percy had enough momentum and speed and he flung both his legs upward to grip the boulder. Amazingly, his plan worked.

Now Percy was upside down with his legs bent over the side and his broken knee screaming in protest at the tension of holding on for dear life. His left hand was still wrapped in moss, but it was slowly tearing itself apart and Percy knew that soon, he would be completely upside down, with only his legs preventing him from falling headfirst into acidic waters.

Percy figured he must be completely out of his mind to plan to do what he had to do next because of the excruciating pain it would surely cause him. But he knew he was only seconds from taking a header into poison, so he figured if he had to feel unbearable pain, it should be from reaching dry land. Though before he followed through with his plan, a sudden thought struck Percy's mind. _Where was Annabeth?_, but just then the moss ripped and he had to quickly complete his insane plan.

So he planted his feet as firmly as he could on top of the massive stone and pushed off with both of his arms that were dangling by his sides, even his shattered one, but that is when naturally, everything went wrong again.

What Percy had forgotten was that the boulder was being splashed constantly by the roaring rapids below so it was always moist and slippery; so when Percy tried to push himself up by his arms, his hands slipped off of the rock and Percy did a header into the acidic waterway.

At first, all Percy thought about and felt was pain. Waves after waves of unbearable torture surfed across his mind and he felt his vision going dark and knew he was seconds from blacking out and drowning; but just then he was able to think clearly enough to realize that though he was in Polybotes' blessed water, he was still breathing normally. That didn't mean that his skin was blistering and burning from the acidic water, but he still could breathe as easily as if he was breathing regular oxygen.

All that didn't matter to Percy's pain nerves though, they felt like they were being torn apart in every way imaginable and set on fire. Trying to put this out of his mind, Percy took a deep breath and begun to swim upward to the surface but that's when he was thrust out into kelp growing out of the river's floor.

It was too late before Percy realized that the kelp wouldn't be any natural kelp, it would be magic. Before this flashed across his mind, the kelp had already wound itself around Percy's entire midsection and legs. He desperately tried to free himself from the kelp's grasp, but it was no use. The kelp had him, and it wasn't letting go any time soon.

That is when Percy's anger peaked when he thought how he had survived the fall into Tartarus and defeated Kronos while he was possessing Arachne, all to be defeated by some sea plants. When Percy's rage reached the absolute highest point it would ever go, he shot out of the kelp's hold and into the sky, so high, Zeus must be gathering a lightning bolt to shoot at him.

Percy shot out of the river, fast as a bullet, into the sky and he landed on the edge of the boulders. His right arm must have been broken beyond repair, because once again, Percy landed on his right side of his body in the most painful and awkward away imaginable. Percy felt what was left of the right side of his ribs fracture, and his right arm twisted all the way around his body as if there wasn't ever any bones there to prevent it from doing just that.

After Percy landed hard on the rock, he briefly blacked out and he only came to again when he was in free-fall through the air. Before Percy could react and try to slow his fall down, he slammed into the hard ground below.

This impact knocked the wind out of him but didn't otherwise injure him anymore which as fine with Percy because his body was already so damaged. Once he was able to see straight again, Percy painfully managed to pull himself into a sitting position to get his bearings, search for Annabeth, and survey how bad of a shape he was in.

Though it caused Percy an extreme amount of pain to position himself to be able to look at his surroundings, he managed to do that. It seemed as if he had fallen off the boulders and into what looked like, a parking lot. So that was the hard impact he had felt, it was the asphalt and tar. But suddenly, Percy saw a figure racing towards him in the distance.

Once the person got a little closer, Percy saw that it had blond hair in princess curls and it was screaming his name at the top of their lungs.

"Percy! Percy! Where are you! Percy, there you are! Thank the gods you're alive!"

As the person was screaming all of this at him, Percy realized that the figure was Annabeth. She was covered in cuts and bruises, but otherwise she seemed all right. When she saw he was alive and conscious, she sprinted at full speed towards where he was lying, and tackled him in a bear embrace.

This was too much for Percy to take, pain wise, and he shrieked in agony and started sobbing from the torture he felt from his shoulder and ribs. As his dignity slipped away and Percy started crying like a little girl from the unbearable pain, Annabeth immediately pulled away.

"Oh my gods! I'm an idiot! I am so sorry Percy, please don't cry! I'll fix you and your bones!"

But the pain didn't fade for Percy, in fact it was even worse. So when Annabeth bent over to pull him close to examine his shoulder and ribs, his mind was so overwhelmed from the torture and it said good-bye to the world. So Percy collapsed against Annabeth, unconscious, and knew no more.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- Percy**

When Annabeth Chase grabbed Percy Jackson to examine his shoulder and side, his arm exploded in fireworks of agony. His mind had just enough time to feel and register the torture, before it couldn't take it anymore, and shut down leaving Percy unconscious with Annabeth crying hysterically for him to wake up.

As soon as Percy lost consciousness, his mind wasn't allowed to just rest in peace, it had to travel to a dark dreary place that was actually not far away at all. But strangely in this dream, it seemed like he was actually there, only just in spirit/dream form.

"Percy Jackson! So we meet again! But you don't see fit to pay me a visit while you are in my realm? Didn't your father, my upstart brother, Poseidon, teach you any manners?" exclaimed Hades, god of the Underworld.

"Hades, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a little busy at the moment," countered Percy.

"What could you be up to that is more of a priority for you than visiting the god of the realm you're in?" demanded Hades.

"Oh, I don't know; maybe not dying while Annabeth and I are stuck down here in Tartarus!"

"I see, so you and that girl have landed yourself in Tartarus with the worst monsters and creatures our world has. That could be problematic for you two in the long run, and also for your friends. Of course, Poseidon has asked me to guide and assist you while you are in my domain, but I refused."

"Hades! Why would you refuse to help us if you can?" inquired Percy angrily.

"What have you ever done for me, except be a thorn in my side?"

"How about, I found your Realm of Darkness when I was 12! Or the fact that I've saved your son multiple times since he found out he was a demigod!"

"Those were just luck! You have never actually proven yourself by your skill!" claimed Hades.

"I have battled and defeated Kronos twice now! The most recent time was down here in your domain, while apparently you watched and did nothing to help!" shouted Percy.

"You silly little boy! Gods are not supposed to interfere in heroes' destinies, it goes against the Fates! Our children must find their own way, with minimal aid from others, and that is how they prove themselves!"

"But my dad asked you to help, so then he isn't following the rules of the Fates!"

"Poseidon has never followed the rules and guidelines, a trait he has passed on to you. The ocean does not like to be contained or restricted by rules; while I can respect that because the sea is his domain, but he is really pushing it by doing what he is about to do."

"What is he going to do that is so bad?"

"I'm not allowed to say, but the consequences for him and for even more, you, can and will be severe. Now I presume that you know what attracts monsters to demigods, such as yourself?"

"Yes, it is the godly blood in us. But what does that have anything to do with what we're talking about?"

"It has everything to do with what we're discussing. You, Thalia, Jason, Hazel, and Nico attract more monsters than most demigods due to being children of the elder and most powerful gods. I have noticed that you attract the most monsters due to you being, oh how did my son put it, the most powerful demigod he knows. Anyway, if monsters are attracted to your godly blood which is mulled by the mortal blood in you, imagine how many monsters will be attracted to an actual god?"

"Oh, that would not be good."

" So be warned Percy Jackson, there is going to be a time very soon where you are faced with an impossible choice. I am allowed to tell you this one thing though; it has to do with your fatal flaw and Gaea. But I have an offer for you, would you like to hear it?"

"Am I going to end up in a dungeon like the last time you brought me here, or more accurately, tricked your son into bringing me here?"

"Don't give me that sass, boy! My offer is this, but this time consider what can happen if you accept it and what could benefit from you not accepting. But before I tell you my generous deal, you are aware of your injuries right?"

"Vaguely, why?"

This question seemed to oddly apply to Hades' nice side, because his face softened and his voice was now kinder and less harsh.

"Percy, you are in very bad shape. While you will be able to walk, talk, and function, you won't ever be the same. I won't tell you what your bones look like right now, when you return to your body, you will find out for yourself. Just know that right now, you are dying; but this is where my offer comes in though.

"While you can be extremely annoying at times, even I have to admit that you are incredibly brave and have immense powers that you're not afraid to use, if it is ever necessary, no matter the cost to you. I wish my son, Nico, was more like you and had your courage, bravery, and loyalty; other people find him creepy and odd, while they look up to you and trust you."

"What's your point, Hades?"

"Perseus Jackson, my point is that you are greatly admired by both demigods and gods. Now if you haven't noticed, I am alone down here in the Underworld and we are having so many problems down here because of the Doors of Death are open. So-"

"Wait a minute," Percy interrupted, "you're not alone; you have Persephone."

"Persephone hates it down here and her cursed mother, Demeter, always nags saying it isn't fair to have her daughter spend the winters here. This is enough to drive anyone mad. What I really need is a lieutenant for all of time, someone who is immortal, powerful, and will always fight by my side. That person is you, Percy Jackson."

It took a moment for this to sink in, but when it did, Percy stared at the god of the Underworld.

"Hades, I'm honored and everything, but my power is the ocean, not the dead. I won't be able to fight for you down here, so far from the sea," spluttered Percy, in shock.

"I control and rule the entire Underworld, I'm fairly certain I can arrange to put in an ocean for you. With you by my side, no one would dare cross or undermine me again!'

"What would my father say if I agreed; he would think I betrayed him!" exclaimed Percy.

"Ah, we've come back to this. I have told you that Poseidon came to me asking for my help, I did not flat out refuse like I told you. What I did say was that if he gave me permission to make you immortal and to rule the Underworld with me, I would save your life. This pained him to hear because he knows he would lose you as his faithful son, but he knew that you could very well die without my help, so he told me that he would not force this fate on you, but he gave me permission to offer this as an option to you and let you choose for yourself.

"This took a lot of courage, but Poseidon loves you too much to let you die. Know this Percy, all of the gods and goddesses are rooting for you, while you have been a pain to many of them, they do not forget that you were the one to save Mount Olympus from Kronos and the Titans, even Zeus can't put this out of his mind. Many of them have told Poseidon that they will help you if they ever can and that you have their full support. They know of my offer and their advice is to do what you think is best, but they demanded for me to tell you as they say, pros and cons of becoming my lieutenant.

"The giants can only be defeated by heroes and gods working together; this is hard for the gods to accept that we need our children's help to defeat one of our greatest enemies. Zeus has finally begun to see reason once he heard from your father and Athena on what you and that girl are going through to close the Doors of Death, but we are nowhere near to where we need to be cooperation wise, if we are to stand a chance against Gaea and her giants. But this is where you come in.

"If you accept my offer, you will become a god and I would permit you to leave the Underworld to join your friends and defeat the giants and lull Gaea back in her sleep. So you can defeat the giants yourself without the help from the other Olympians, and you would forever be immortal; those are the pros of accepting my deal. Now there is just one con, you would never be able to go back to Camp Half-Blood again, and you would never see your mother again," stated Hades, matter-of-factly.

"Do I have to decide now?" asked Percy.

"No, take your time. I know this is a lot to think about, but know Gaea cannot be stopped unless the gods help you and they will not. You cannot win this fight, Percy Jackson. Know that you will never be safe and in peace as long as remain a demigod who has immense powers and skill.

"All I ask is that you remember what I said, and what can happen if you accept. But a word of advice, be careful on using your powers, they greatly drain your life essence or force as you would call it, and if you use all of your life essence, you will die. Be careful, Percy Jackson. Also, know I have lost control over the skeletons down here, it's not my fault!"

After those vague final words, Percy's spirit form disappeared, but rather than waking up, his spirit was taken to another place, even more miserable than Hades' throne room.

Percy was now in the middle of the Earth, watching a figure bubble and form in the lava, when a sleeping woman appeared in front of him. At first, he didn't recognize the woman but then suddenly as if a light bulb went off in his head, he knew she was,

"Gaea!"

"Yes, Perseus Jackson; it is I, Mother Earth, your worst enemy. You now lay on the pavement, too weak to stay conscious, your body lays broken, while the girl you love cries over you. Know now Percy Jackson, you will only be the first death in my awakening.

"As your blood will seep into the ground, I will awake fully and regain my power and defeat the gods with the help of my giants. Your friends back in the regular world now face the ichthyocentaurs, who are angered that your father has broken the rules, and they will die. I am sure a monster or two can attack your girlfriend, and then she too, will die. You see, Percy Jackson, you cannot defeat me. You have been such a nuisance that I very well may let you live just so you can die in the most painful way; maybe I'll be generous and I'll let you lose your mind like your friend of death was about to if I hadn't saved him.

"Now Percy Jackson, watch at the horrors I can unleash on you."

Gaea snapped her fingers and the most horrific images floated through Percy's mind; human torture, disfiguration, wars, and things even worse than that. Monsters that were so gruesome that he couldn't even being to describe them. Just as Percy felt like he would go insane if he had to watch anymore, his eyes snapped open to a figure bending over him, wiping his forehead with a dry washcloth, and he screamed.

Unlike in both of his dreams, Percy was in incredible pain. His head was splitting and pounding like a drum, his arm and should felt like they were on fire, and his ribs felt like they had a million tiny shards of glass embedded in them. When his eyes focused, the bright light of the red sun in the sky was suddenly much brighter and it made his head hurt even more and he groaned in agony.

"Percy! Are you ok? How are you feeling?" cried Annabeth.

"Terrible, is the sun always that bright?" inquired Percy.

"It's the same color as always, I think that's your split skull talking, everything appears much brighter when you have a concussion. But what happened?" asked Annabeth.

"My dreams or the river?"

"The river, wait, what dreams?"

"I'll tell you about the river then my dreams, but after that, then you can tell me what happened to you once you swam across. When I jumped across, my foot caught on a twig and my body flipped over so my left side was plunged into the water while I was still sailing over the water, but I was lucky my entire body didn't go in. But then I collided with the boulders and even though my head slammed into the boulder first, my right shoulder and arm took most of the impact. I still had the presence of mind though to hold on with my left arm and swing my legs upward so I was dangling like that. Unfortunately, when my handhold ripped, and I tried to push up with my arms, my hand slipped and I went headfirst into the river.

"When I went into the river, the pain was horrible but then this magical kelp trapped me and it wouldn't let go. So after it seemed like I would never escape, I shot out of the river and landed on my right arm again on the boulders, but then I fell off the boulders and landed painfully here," explained Percy.

"You just can't escape injuries these days can you, Seaweed Brain?" stated Annabeth.

"Why? What did I injure this time?"

"It's not as bad as it could be, but it's still awful, especially your ribs and shoulder. Your skin is still bright red but it's slowly beginning to fade though you are covered in blisters, you'll survive. You rebroke your left knee, but otherwise your legs escaped injury and we can splint your knee and make you some makeshift crutches again. But your skulls, ribs, and shoulder/arm are another story.

"When you slammed into the boulder headfirst, your skull split open so you lost a decent amount of blood, but I was able to stop the bleeding for the most part so it should begin to heal now. It seems though that when you landed on the boulders, you fractured all of your ribs on your right side; because of this, you will have difficulty sitting up and lying down and taking deep breaths. But Percy, I was looking at them and it seems that they are starting to mend so you thankfully didn't shatter them and you should begin to be able to breathe normally in a week or so.

"However, I can't say the same about your right arm and shoulder. Since they took the brunt of both impacts, they are the things that are hurt the worst. The humerus is fractured and the ulna and radius are shattered; also you severely dislocated your shoulder, and I can't put it back in its socket because the bones are broken. I made you a make shift sling out of weeds and plants, so we can try to keep it immobile as much as possible; but if we ever get out of here, I think you need something more than nectar and ambrosia to completely repair it, that's how bad it is, Seaweed Brain."

"That doesn't sound good, but tell me, what happened to you?"

"After I saw you take a header into the boulder, I tried to swim to you but the currents caught me. The currents were so strong that they tore my backpack off my shoulders and carried me down stream. By the time I managed to escape the currents and swim to the other side, I saw you slam into the pavement, which by the way, looked like it hurt like Hades. So I sprinted over here where you were lying broken and bloodied, and well, you know what happened next."

"Yeah, by the way you're not an idiot, you didn't know it would cause me that much pain. So when you tackled me and I passed out from the pain, my spirit or dream self was summoned to a meeting with Hades."

With that, Percy began to describe his meeting with Hades and his offer. But as he talked, Percy began to realize something. He saw what Hades had meant by saying that they can't win; the gods would never admit they needed the heroes' help and without the gods, the demigods didn't stand a chance against something as massive as giants and the earth itself. When they were traveling by land before they fell into Tartarus, they could never travel over land because they were always pulled into the ground. They would never beat Mother Earth and her children; it was hopeless.

When Percy reached the part of Gaea, tears filled his eyes with the hopelessness of it all. They had seen what Gaea and the giants could do, how many supporters and allies she had gathered and even if Percy and the demigods managed to kill them, they just kept coming back.

They couldn't even help their friends because they were trapped here in Tartarus, where there were so many horrible things waiting to attack, that it seemed that they would never reach the Doors of Death. Also even if they reached the Doors of Death, he wasn't sure how both he and Annabeth were going to be able to get out and still seal them from the side in Tartarus. Gaea had beaten them.

With all these miserable thoughts were in his head, Percy finally begun to understand how Nico was nearly driven insane by 10 minutes down here, Tartarus and the things in it were just that horrible.

Percy realized that Annabeth was staring at him and that there were tears running down his face, so he hastily moved to wipe them away with his good arm.

"Oh Percy, it will be ok. We will escape this place and we will defeat Gaea with our friends, and then we can live happily together. Know we will do this together, no matter what," comforted Annabeth.

He had just managed a weak nod, when there was a crack of lightning and a clap of thunder, which was really odd because there was no weather in Tartarus. When the ground stopped smoking, there were 4 people standing there.

Poseidon, Athena, Ares, and Artemis stood over them looking revealed that Percy and Annabeth were alive. But their expressions of joy quickly crumbled when they saw the shape Percy was in and Poseidon bent over and begun to cry over his broken son. While Athena, Ares, and Artemis had the expressions of utmost sympathy on their faces for their fellow Olympian and the broken hero. Whenever you see gods and goddesses feel sympathy for a god or hero, it was never a good sign because it always meant something a devastating thing was about to happen.


	9. Chapter 9

** Chapter 9- Annabeth **

Annabeth Chase didn't even notice at first the 4 gods that were staring down at her, she was too busy cradling Percy Jackson in her arms, as he lay there, dying. His body was so broken and he was in so much pain, he didn't even realize she was crying. She only looked up when Poseidon started sobbing over his dying son.

"Percy! Oh, Percy! Don't die! Percy!" Poseidon continued to sob like this for a very long time until Ares cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Poseidon, he's still alive, there is still time to save him."

That's when Percy opened his eyes and saw his father crying over him and Ares, Athena, and Artemis gazing sadly down at him.

"Dad," Percy croaked, "what's the matter?"

"Percy! Don't move; we can help you! Just stay still, alright! Stay still!"

"What's going on?"

"You're hurt bad, son. But as gods, we can do our best to heal you, or at least make it so you're not about to die at any minute. If you would just stay still, I can summon the power of the ocean and fill the sea in your veins."

"Dad, no! Please don't!"

"Percy, why on earth are you resisting?"

"If you use that type of magic here, it will attract so many monsters to Annabeth and me that it would be better for me just to die here. Please don't use that type of magic now," Percy pleaded.

"Son, we can limit the amount of energy we release, and I can assure you we will release the least amount of energy possible so little to no monsters will be drawn to you any more than usual. Please Percy, I can't lose you."

"If I let you do what you want to, what will happen?"

"I cannot make you invulnerable or heal all of your wounds but I can make it so your life essence isn't rapidly fading. Percy you're using your power to stay alive without even realizing it, mind you this takes a great deal of skill and power to do, but using your power like this is keeping you alive but at the same time is killing you. While your power has healed your fatal injuries, if you keep this up, your abilities will entirely drain your force of life and you will die," explained Poseidon.

"But if I stop using my powers to heal myself, won't I die anyway from my injuries?"

"That is where I come in; I will put some of my power into you which will mend the worst of your injuries. This will take a while to complete, but once we are done, you will be able to breathe at least semi-normally and your brain won't be bleeding anymore, also we can heal the blisters so you can walk, though with crutches."

"Do you promise on the River Styx that this won't draw anymore monsters to us?"

"I promise on the River Styx that I will release the least amount of godly energy possible," swore Poseidon.

After Percy accepted his father's oath, Poseidon placed his hands on his son's temples and watched as Percy's sea-green eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled against his father, unconscious.

"Percy! Poseidon, what did you do to him?" shrieked Annabeth.

"Do not fear Annabeth, my daughter, Percy is all right; he just had to place Percy into a deep sleep where he won't wake for a while, this will allow Poseidon to put some of his power and life force into Percy. Now hush child, Poseidon needs to concentrate."

For the next two hours there was complete silence as the god of the sea placed his hands on either side of Percy's head and began the transfer of powers. Poseidon's hands glowed green and blue and the air smelled strangely of the ocean, while Percy continued to remain unconscious and unaware of what was going on.

But as the transfer continued to go on, Annabeth noticed that Percy's face loosened a little from the pain and he sighed in his sleep. When that happened, Poseidon smiled, but kept working for another half hour. Finally, Poseidon finished just as Percy began to stir.

"How are you feeling Percy?"

"Incredibly sore and tired, but better. Did the transfer work?"

"Flawlessly, but you'll be tired and sore for a couple days with your life essence going from almost nonexistent to being so swollen now. Can you try to sit up for me, so we can see how much was healed by my power," commanded Poseidon.

When Percy sat up, he turned a nasty shade of green but took a shaky breath and was able to remain in a sitting position without collapsing, and he looked up at his father.

"How much of your power did you put into me?"

"A decent amount, you were a couple of minutes from dying you know, but now you will diffidently live. Now come on, we have to lift your shirt off to see that shoulder and those ribs, and I imagine it's not going to feel good, no matter how much godly power you have in you now."

Percy took as deep of a breath as he could manage with his hurt ribs, and started to pull his shirt off. But apparently he wasn't healed enough to do that motion just yet, because his eyes crossed and he groaned in agony. Annabeth ran forward to help him and with Poseidon's help, they managed to pry the t-shirt off of Percy, due to it being caked with dried blood. But when Annabeth looked down at Percy, she gasped in shock.

While his injuries weren't as bad as before, they were still awful and gruesome looking. There was a long gash that ran across his entire side, exposing his multiple fractured ribs, that was still bleeding. When Poseidon saw that, he quickly snatched up a handful of weeds beside him and he made a bandage that he used to bind Percy's wound.

"Poseidon, do you have any nectar and ambrosia with you? That could really help Percy right now," asked Annabeth.

"Alas, even gods have limits. This dreadful place's spirit prohibits us from conjuring anything magical, just like it did to young Calypso when you saw her. But we are even bound further, and we cannot even conjure mortal objects such as medical supplies," responded Poseidon in a sad voice.

Annabeth gave Poseidon a quick nod to acknowledge him, and continued to gaze upon Percy's wounds. She saw that all the blisters that had covered his body 3 hours prior, now had completely healed themselves, with no sign that there were ever there. Percy's skin had also lost that alarming bright red color, and had returned to its normal pale color.

Next, Annabeth looked at Percy's skull and saw that though the deep gash was still there, showing where it had split open, but the blood had stopped gushing from it and it had now started to scab over. This brought Annabeth great relief, because she had seen the gash at its worst and the blood it had produced. Annabeth also saw that Percy's left knee had been set into the proper position and now had a cast to help it heal.

However, Poseidon had not been able to heal Percy's shoulder or arm at all. The bones were still either fractured or shattered, and his shoulder stuck out of its socket at a nauseating angle. Annabeth knew that it would be a long time before Percy would be able to use that arm at all.

"Oh, Percy!" Annabeth breathed in a hushed undertone because Percy's eyelids had begun to close again, but when he heard his name, Percy's eyes shot open again.

"Am I all better now?" Percy asked.

"Percy, you have healed a lot, but not all the way. Your burns have all disappeared, your split skull has greatly improved, your knee has mended enough to walk with crutches, and your ribs are slowly mending themselves. Though your shoulder is still dislocated and shattered so you won't be using it anytime soon, you will be able to walk with crutches and function. That is a great improvement from death's door, Percy," said Poseidon.

"Alright, how's my life essence?"

"Getting better, it should be back to normal in a day or two and will stay that way as long as you don't reinjure yourself. Now that we have done this, Ares and Athena and Artemis and I need to talk to you and Annabeth. Since you are in no shape to get up and walk, we can talk here; so Ares, do you want to say what you wanted to say now?" questioned Poseidon.

"Sure, Poseidon. Listen up kid, now that you've gotten your memory back, I know you remember our history. Your dislike of me is mutual, but even I've got to say kid, that you've got guts. You fell into Tartarus with your girlfriend rather than let go and save yourself, which takes some serious bravery and loyalty. While I really don't like you, I do know that you're skilled with a sword and your powers over the sea really come in handy in a battle. So remember this kid, the next time you're fighting for your life, know that you have got the blessing of Ares on your side. I'm placing this gift on you, because all of us gods are rooting for you. Don't prove us wrong by blowing our trust in you," with that cheery declaration, Ares, god of war, nodded to Poseidon signaling that he was done.

"Thank you Ares, for your blessing of my son. Now Percy, Ares is right, all the Olympians are rooting for you and support you fully because they know you and your friends are our only hope of defeating the giants and lulling Gaea back into her slumber. While Zeus is very reluctant to admit this, and is only now starting to realize how much we need our children, we have known for a long time what was going on. So the other gods have asked me to pass on a message to you.

"The message is that if you ever need them or their certain gift, than all you have to do is send a quick prayer, and they'll immediately respond. For example, if you need a good shot with a bow and arrow, send a prayer to Apollo and Artemis here; or if you need to steal something, and I can't believe I'm saying this as a parent, but send a prayer to Hermes, and so on. But I want to give you a blessing of my own, the blessing of Poseidon.

"While this is also a blessing that takes place in battle like Ares', this does not make you feared and skilled with every weapon, but it gives you even more power of the sea, storms, and earthquakes. Percy, you are by far the most powerful child I've ever had, this is proven by the fact that you blew up a volcano once, but this blessing increases your power by 10 fold. You will be able to make the earth rumble at the slightest touch, call up the severest hurricanes, and turn water to ice. But be warned Percy, only use this blessing as a last resort, it will severely drain your life essence, so be careful when or if you ever need to call upon it," warned Poseidon, god of the sea.

"I will Dad, I'll be careful."

"Now my turn for speaking, I give you the blessing of the hunt, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. While I do appreciate prayers for the use of my gifts, I give both of you the gift of the bow and arrow. With this blessing, both of you are now immensely skilled archers, so you can shoot and hit the bulls-eye on anything. I never doubted you guys, and I will not start now, when we gods so greatly need your assistance with defeating Gaea and her giants. Remember this blessing if you ever have to shoot anything with a bow and arrow, remember the blessing of the hunt," with that Artemis, goddess of the hunt, bowed to both Annabeth and Percy, then stepped back, signaling to Athena for her turn to give her blessing.

"You have done well, my daughter, and you too, Percy Jackson. Both of you have exceeded any expectations I had of you and you have both impressed me with your wisdom and intelligence. I warn you again though, Percy Jackson, your choice will be coming soon and you may not be prepared to make it. Annabeth, remember your wisdom and always keep your head and think for the best of everyone. With this, I give you the blessing of wisdom," advised Athena, goddess of wisdom.

"I am sorry Percy, but we must be going, I am afraid 4 gods are beginning to attract too much attention from monsters. Even now, I am sensing something drawing near and I don't want to give whatever it is, a reason to pay you a visit. Be careful Percy, and take care of yourself," said Poseidon, in farewell to his favorite son.

With that, the 4 Olympians stood in a line and brought down a strike of lightning and another clap of thunder, and then they were gone.

But before Annabeth could speak to Percy, they heard a rattling of bones in the distance. Annabeth wasn't sure what the noise was, but Percy looked like he was going to throw up.

"Percy, what is it? What is that noise?" demanded Annabeth.

"That's right, you weren't there when we fought them 3 years ago, when we were 13. Those are undead skeletons that never die, but are very skilled at killing you."

"_What?_ How do we defeat them then?"

Percy sighed in despair and simply said,

"We can't. Only two demigods have ever been known to be able to kill them."

"Who are they?"

"Well, one has passed on and the other is meeting us at the Doors of Death. The only demigods who could defeat the undead skeletons are or were, Bianca and Nico di Angelo, children of Hades."

"Wait, these skeletons work for Hades right? What if he sent them after us to try to get you to accept his offer to become his immortal lieutenant?'

"I don't think so, Annabeth. As I was fading from my first dream with him, he shouted after me that he had lost control of the skeletons and it wasn't his fault; I think he knew that the skeletons were coming after us and he wanted us to know that he hadn't sent them."

"He still could have warned us. But if we can't kill them, we're just going to have to outrun them. Are they fast?"

"Not that I remember, how fast do you think I can run though on these crutches?"

"I know you, Seaweed Brain. You will sprint as fast as you can on those crutches and it helps that the ground is flat now."

"Yeah, come on let's get going."

But the skeletons were faster than Percy had first thought. They moved as fast as a human jog and with Percy on crutches, the skeletons quickly caught up to them. So within 5 minutes, they were surrounded.

Percy quickly uncapped Riptide and Annabeth drew her bronze dagger from her pocket and stood back to back, their old battle position. Though they could slash their weapons through the skeletons and they crumbled to a pile of bones, they quickly reformed and were back to attacking them in no time.

Annabeth and Percy slashed hundreds of skeletons, though Annabeth more than Percy because he was battling left-handed rather than with his right, which was his preferred sword hand. But no matter how hard they fought, there were too many skeletons and they were overwhelmed.

Just when Annabeth thought that they would die a death by skeleton, there was a sudden flash of light and a loud boom filled the air. Not only did Annabeth and Percy pause to look at the source of the sound, the skeletons did too.

But as soon as the skeleton stopped fighting, Percy slashed through the front row with his sword and then before they could reform, they heard a loud roar above them. The skeletons must know the thing that produced the roar because they quickly dropped their weapons and fled in terror.

Annabeth looked up at their savior, expecting a great hero or something along those lines, but what she saw scared her more than the skeletons, much more. She looked over and Percy looked like he was going to faint because of what stood before them.

The thing that stood before them was not a hero, not even close, it was a giant. But to make matters worse, it wasn't any other giant, it was Polybotes, the giant born to oppose Poseidon, and who turned water to poison. Who was staring down at them, with a club in his hand, smiling like he was imagining how he was going to kill them.

"Well, well, well; if it isn't Percy Jackson and a friend! I bet you wish now you hadn't killed me now Percy Jackson, because now I will kill you and your friend, slowly and painfully. Mother will reward me greatly for making your blood be the thing that awakens her!" bellowed Polybotes, with joy at the thought of beating them with that club and killing them.


	10. Chapter 10

** Chapter 10- Hazel**

Getting dragged out of bed in the middle of the night is not a pleasant experience. Especially if you have a spear pointed at your throat while you're being bound and gagged by fish centaurs.

When Hazel, daughter of Pluto, was grabbed out of bed during the night, she immediately screamed at the top of her lungs, so that's how she got a cloth shoved into her mouth to silence her. After that, when the fish horse in her room pointed a spear at her head while it grabbed her arms and tied them behind her back.

After Hazel's arms were tied up so tight that she was beginning to lose feeling in them, the ichthyocentaur that was kidnapping her, moved its spear from her head to the middle of her back, and commanded her to start walking.

So like that, with her arms pinned and a spear at her back, Hazel climbed the stairs up to the main deck to where she saw that her friends had received the same treatment she had. All of them looked ok, but Piper had a nasty bruise on her jaw, showing that she had tried to charm speak her way out of being kidnapped, but was unsuccessful.

The ichthyocentaur shoved Hazel to where her friends were standing in a line, and it joined its fellow kidnappers. That was when Hazel realized that there was one person missing from the line of her friends, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. _Please Pluto,_ Hazel prayed, _please let Jason save us._

Apparently her dad was watching and decided to take pity on her, because just then Jason sprinted up the stairs and burst onto the deck. Hazel saw Jason's eyes take in the situation and calculate the best way to save his friends, without getting anyone killed.

"What are you doing? I thought we were at peace with you guys!" cried Jason, in desperation.

"You know why we're here, son of Jupiter! The truce has been broken! Neptune visited this very ship and broke our agreement of peace, so now we are at war with anything that has ever supported the gods! Since this includes you; you will now die!" exclaimed the ichthyocentaur.

"Right, but before you kill us, would you mind telling us who you are?" stalled Jason.

"Your friends Hazel, Leo, and Frank here know who we are. I am Bythos and this is my brother Aphros, we will be the ones to bring your end," stated the ichthyocentaur named Bythos.

"I see, now how did Neptune exactly break the truce?"

"The truce states that the gods may not come into our domain and interfere with the heroes' quests if they should ever sail into our part of the sea. In return, we swore that we would provide help if we could and not to attack and kill. Neptune broke both parts of the agreement by visiting this ship and bringing other gods with him who gave you advice and aid! This gives us permission to kill you, and then everything is fair again."

"Well, it's not exactly fair to kill us for something the gods did. Can't you just send them an angry letter and call a meeting for them to apologize for their wrongdoings?"

"No! Even if we wanted to, the gods would never admit that they did anything wrong! Neptune will just claim that he did what he did to save his son and Minerva's daughter from death; he will rationalize it on that the ends justify the means! But never once does he consider how we may feel about what he does and how he tossed aside the deal we made without second thought!"

"Ok, I see your point. It isn't fair for the gods to break an agreement they made, so how about you let us go, and since we are traveling to rescue Neptune's son, then he can convince his father to send a very meaningful apology. This way the gods know about your feelings and then they can agree to consider this and not do as they please everywhere. Does this sound good?"

"Hmmm, I would like to see an apology from the gods, to see them admit that they were wrong about something. What do you think Aphros? I think we should let them go so they can save Neptune's son."

"Bythos, you moron! This son of Jupiter is just trying to save himself and his friends; they won't have the gods apologize! Kill them!" ordered Aphros.

"You dare to try and trick me! Ichthyocentaurs kill them!" commanded Bythos.

"No, no, no! I'm not trying to trick you!" pleaded Jason.

"Lies! Execute them!" exclaimed Aphros and Bythos, at the same time.

As both ichthyocentaurs ordered this, their brethren lifted their spears and sword to each of Hazel's friends' necks, and prepared to kill them. As Hazel saw a spear being pointed at her own throat, her heart began to pound a million times a minute.

Right before the ichthyocentaurs killed them, Hazel heard a loud pink on the ground. She saw on the deck that there were now a dozen diamonds, rubies, and jewels lying there at her feet. The ichthyocentaur that was supposed to kill her paused for a second to examine the precious metals that surrounded them.

Hazel then got an idea that could save her and her friends; she closed her eyes tight and for the first time in her life, willed for more precious metals from the Underworld to appear.

As soon as she did this, hundreds of jewels of all different shapes and colors appeared on the deck; all the ichthyocentaurs bent down to examine the jewels with great interest, abandoning their weapons beside them. Hazel nodded to her friends, signaling to them to take advantage of the distraction.

Jason and Thalia immediately called down lightning and electrocuted the first row of ichthyocentaurs, and Leo called fire to his hands and blasted the next row, reducing them to a pile of smoldering ash. The Hunters of Artemis shot all of their arrows at the fish centaurs, turning them to dust. Frank transformed himself into a giant elephant and with Tyson, knocked a whole lot of them off the deck, making them fly out hundreds of miles into the sea. While Piper wasn't much of a fighter, she did her best to charm speak the ichthyocentaurs into leaving them alone.

Though Hazel was conjuring as many jewels as she could to trip and distract the fish centaurs, and her friends were all using the powers they have, it wasn't enough to defeat the ichthyocentaurs. More and more kept coming out of the ocean, faster than the demigods could kill or toss off the ship, and it looked like Hazel and her friends were going to be executed after all.

Just then, all the ichthyocentaurs froze in place. Not froze like they were caught doing something wrong froze, but actually froze into ice sculptures. If it couldn't get any weirder, it did by starting to snow when it was 85 degrees out just a moment ago and completely sunny.

As the snow started to turn into a blizzard, the ichthyocentaurs ice statues, shattered into pieces, swords and spears and all. Hazel looked around, bewildered, at her friends who looked just as shocked as she was, when the snow abruptly stopped just as sudden as it started.

Hazel looked up at the sky, and saw something very strange. A teenage girl with white blond hair that fell to her waist and piercing blue eyes was flying down to them. She was very beautiful but gave off a cold and disapproving aura, which made Hazel instantly dislike her.

Though Hazel didn't recognize the flying girl, it looked like Jason, Piper, Leo, and Thalia did because they all had gone pale with fear.

"Guys, who is this girl and why is she flying? Did she turn the ichthyocentaurs to ice?"

With wide eyes, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Thalia managed to nod at Hazel saying that this strange girl was the one to freeze the fish centaurs. While Hazel didn't know who this mysterious girl was still, she knew that if her friends were this afraid, she should be too.

"Hello again Jason, Piper, Leo, and the Hunters of Artemis. It seems that I have saved you from these ichthyocentaurs, so why am I not getting a thank you?"

When no one responded, the girl's eyes flashed with anger and it started to snow again.

"I said, how about a thank you? No? Well, considering the last time we met, I froze most of you into ice, so I guess I can understand if you all still carry grudges against me. But can't we let bygones be bygones?" politely asked the strange girl.

"Wh-who are you? What d-do you want with us?" demanded Hazel when she finally found her voice, though it shook because the temperature had suddenly plummeted to the negative numbers.

"Oh! So I see introductions are in order! I will go first; I am Khione, goddess of snow. And you are?"

"I'm Hazel, daughter of Pluto. So Khione, you are the one that caused my friends' dragon to crash and froze them into ice when they fought against you and Gaea when they rescued Juno from her prison?"

"Now don't be mean, I was helping my patron. Which brings us to why I'm here, I'm afraid I have to kill you," stated Khione.

"Why? What did we, or the gods, do to you?" cried Hazel.

"I never get the respect I deserve, even after you demigods defeated the Titans and demanded for the gods to pay more attention and respect to the minor gods and goddesses. When I finally stood up for myself and asked for an actual job and domain, they just gave me snow and the job of my stupid father's lieutenant with my idiotic brothers! This will show the Olympians to ignore minor gods and goddesses!"

As Khione ranted, the temperature got even colder and it started snowing even harder, covering them with a fine dusting and making them shiver with cold.

"But what does this have to do with us?"

"Well, two things; the first is that you are going on this quest for the gods to save them and your friend Percy, who is a very powerful child of the gods, so this means that you support the Olympians and their actions, including their treatment of others. The other thing is that I am ordered to do this by my patron, who does not want you to rescue your friends and close the Doors of Death," reasoned Khione.

"So you're still taking orders from others?" stalled Hazel.

"No, I am not! Silence! I will now kill you!" bellowed the goddess of snow.

"Yeah, no thanks. I prefer living rather than dying; now guys!" ordered Hazel.

Luckily, all of her friends knew what she meant and threw all of their abilities and whatever they had, at Khione. Thalia and Jason worked together and created a massive ball of lightning and wind, which they chucked at Khione. Leo gathered all the fire he could in his hands and pelted it at the goddess of snow; while the Hunters shot arrows of every kind at her. Frank transformed into a bull and charged the evil minor goddess with Tyson, who was carrying his club like a hammer.

As all of this was going on, Hazel closed her eyes again and concentrated on drawing all the precious metals of the Underworld to her. When she opened her eyes again, she was astounded to see thousands of jewels had gathered at her feet and more were still appearing. Next, Hazel did something she never thought she would do, she concentrated hard and with all the willpower of her mind, lifted the jewels off the ground and made them pelt toward Khione, who was standing there, astounded at the powers Hazel and her friends possessed.

Unfortunately, Khione's shock didn't last long and she created a wall of snow and ice just in time to protect her from the assault of powers. But when the snow and smoke cleared, her hair had frozen to ice and she was madder than ever.

"You dare attack me! I will destroy you, and Gaea will demolish your friends! Their blood in Tartarus will awake her at last!" shrieked Khione, her tone slightly hysterical.

But before the goddess of snow shouted her last word, Jason and Thalia had already created another huge ball of lightning, although this time before they flung it, Leo added some fire to it to make it really smolder with power. Once again though, Khione dogged it, but some had clipped her arm and the temperature was rising again and the snow was starting to let up.

Khione yelped in pain, but instead of making another wall of snow and ice to protect her, she lunged out at Hazel and grabbed her by her throat. Hazel was so stunned, she didn't have time to gather more jewels to fling and before she could, her airway was cut off and her eyes were bulging.

"Hazel!" every last of her friends cried in dismay.

Before Khione could do anything to Hazel though, Leo had gathered a massive amount of fire in his hands and lunged at the goddess of snow, who was too busy laughing like a maniac to notice.

Leo tackled Khione, who dropped Hazel, to the deck and started strangling the goddess with his still burning hands.

"I can't believe I ever thought you were cute!" snarled Leo in anger.

"Get off! I can't kill you, if you're burning me!" cried Khione.

"That's the point!" shouted Leo.

While Leo was keeping the evil snow goddess at bay with his fire hands, Jason and Thalia had put their hands together, and was currently generating so much electricity that everyone's hair was sticking out at puffy and weird angles.

Hazel had caught her breath enough to be able to start gathering precious metals again to attack the goddess while she was down. After there were enough jewels to create some serious bruises, Hazel called out to Leo to let the goddess go.

At first, Leo was confused but he quickly understood what Hazel was going to do, so he let go of the goddess and leapt to the side for Hazel. The minute Leo was safely out of the way, Hazel flung the jewels at the snow goddess with everything she had.

As the precious metals hit Khione with enough force to knock her back down before she had time to shield herself, Leo jumped up and sprinted toward Jason and Thalia where they could barely contain their ball of lightning. When Leo placed his hand with theirs and fire was added to the massive power sphere, the three of them raised their hands together and hurled the orb of lightning and fire toward the evil minor goddess.

The power ball hit Khione right in her chest and burned her entire body. After a moment of Khione staring at her chest, stunned, she began to dissolve into little snowflakes.

"No! I will not be defeated and undermined again! Gaea will bring me back from Tartarus and we will destroy you and your friends!" with that wonderful dying declaration, Khione disintegrated into just a pile of snow.

Hazel and her friends stared in shock and amazement at the mound of snow. When Hazel looked upon herself, she saw that her nightgown was in tatters and her throat was bruised but otherwise she was fine. She wasn't even tired from what she did with the jewels, proving then that her curse didn't drain her energy like powers did to other demigods, like Thalia and Jason who looked ready to pass out from exhaustion.

"You should all get some rest guys; go, I'll take first watch," declared Hazel.

"Hazel, you should rest too; I can watch the ship," protested Thalia.

"Thalia, you and your brother look like you're going to collapse at any moment and Leo isn't looking too good either. All of you go and hit the hay! I'm fine, my ability doesn't drain my strength like your powers do because it's a curse not a power," stated Hazel with confidence.

"Alright, but be sure to call us if anything looks out of the ordinary. Also, we really need to have a meeting in the morning to discuss everything that has happened and regroup," reluctantly agreed Jason.

"Fine, we can have all the meetings you want once everyone has had a full night's sleep. Now go, before I gather more jewels and chuck them at you!"

With everyone laughing at this, the demigods and Hunters scattered off to their rooms to finish sleeping, leaving Hazel gazing at the ocean. The seconds turned to minutes which turned to hours, and before Hazel knew it, the sun had risen and it was looking to be another warm and sunny day.

Just when Hazel was about to wake everyone up so they could have their day of meetings, she saw something in the war stir. Hazel strode over to the railing and peered out into the ocean.

After a moment of the sea looking normal, Hazel was about to decide she had imagined the ripple, before she saw another giant wave in the water, this time even bigger than the last. Hazel opened her mouth to call for the others, when a giant head popped out of the water.

The head emerged from the ocean and a humongous body followed it, but instead of the body having arms and legs, it had enormous tentacles. When the abnormal thing grinned at Hazel's freaked expression, she saw it had razors for teeth, and there were 3 sets of them, like a shark. Just when Hazel was about to recover her voice to shout for her friends to help her, a tentacle shot out of the water and covered her mouth.

Hazel immediately tried to pry the tentacle off her face, but another tentacle grabbed her throat and began to squeeze. Her vision began to darken and just before Hazel passed out from lack of oxygen, she was lifted off her feet and hung upside down by her waist. Then everything went black.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11- Jason**

As soon as Jason heard pounding again from the main deck, he thought something was diffidently wrong. When he heard a muffled scream, Jason knew immediately that Hazel was in trouble, so he leapt out of bed to see what was going on.

When Jason passed the others' rooms, he pounded on their doors, signaling for them to wake up and help with the situation. After Jason had made sure that every person on the ship was awake and ready to assist Hazel with him, he sprinted up the stairs to witness a scene that made his heart plummet to his stomach because it was so horrifying.

There was the most abnormal creature with a human body and head but had tentacles for arms and legs that were 30 feet long and had hundreds of sucky things on them to ensure nothing got away. But if that wasn't strange and freaky enough, the creature had 3 sets of razor teeth that looked like it could bite through anything, including bones.

The monster was holding Hazel upside down by her waist with one of its 4 tentacles, and was strangling her with another. By the look of Hazel's face which was turning blue, and how she was unconscious, Jason guessed that the tentacle had been squeezing her airway closed for at least a couple of minutes already, and he knew that she would die soon from lack of oxygen if he didn't find a way to free her.

Just then, Piper, Frank, Leo, Nico, Thalia, the Hunters, Coach Hedge, Grover, and Tyson all burst onto the deck, with their various weapons ready to go. While the Hunters had their bows set into position and arrows notched into place, set to be fired at a moment's notice, Tyson, Grover, and Coach Hedge had clubs or sticks in their hands willing to smack anything that came in their way. Nico had his black scythe out to kill, but he also looked ready to call on the dead, if necessary. Though Piper had her dagger that used to belong to Helen of Troy out, she looked prepared to talk them out of this with the use of her charm speaking ability.

Frank was half transformed already into an octopus to try to match the creature's tentacles; Leo had gathered a considerable amount of fire into his hands and was about to chuck it at the creature's head. Thalia had her arms raised toward the sky, which Jason recognized as the form to call down a huge lightning strike from the clouds, and he began to do the same thing.

"Who are you?" called out Jason, desperate to try to distract the monster from killing Hazel so he and his friends could rescue her from its terrifying grasp.

"I am Oceanus, Lord of the Sea! But I wouldn't expect a small demigod such as you to fully appreciate what I can do, tiny son of Jupiter!"

Just as the Titan yelled his last insult, he was hit with a full blast of demigod powers. The impact knocked Oceanus backward and he submerged under the water for a moment; unfortunately, when he fell over, the Lord of the Sea dropped the unconscious Hazel into the water, headfirst.

"Hazel!" everyone screamed as her still body sunk into the war like a rock.

Up until that moment, Jason had been blasting the Sea Titan with all the lightning he could, but now he halted his attack and sprinted toward the railing and jumped into the ocean. But before Jason hit the water, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Nico had done the same thing he did, and was already swimming to where Hazel was last seen.

The ocean was freezing but Jason barely registered this in his mind, because all his attention was focused on saving Hazel from sure death by drowning. He dove deeper into the water and reluctantly opened his eyes against the stinging salt water, and just barely made out a limp body sinking 10 yards away from him.

Jason swam as fast as he could to Hazel, but he saw that Nico had gotten to her first and he was now pulling Hazel to the surface. As soon as Jason swam up to where Nico was trying to give Hazel mouth-to-mouth, he placed a hand on Nico's shoulder to let him know that he was helping him.

"Nico, we should get her back to the ship. We don't want to stay in the water with it being Oceanus's domain," reasoned Jason.

"Alright, help me swim with her though; I can't do it by myself."

Together, they draped Hazel over both of their backs as they swam back to the ship, which was still being attacked by Oceanus. When the rest of their friends saw that they had rescued Hazel from the water, Jason saw relief flood their faces, and renewed their defense with renewed force.

"Alright, enough! Truce! I just came here to deliver a message!" shouted Oceanus after a full hour of fighting, with either side showing no sign of surrendering.

"Then why did you attack us if you just came here to deliver a message?" retorted Nico.

"Because I was upset that you hadn't asked permission to sail my seas! Also my patron told me if I desired to, I could attack, or I could talk and deliver the message she gave me," claimed the Titan.

"Whatever, tell us the message or leave us alone!"

"My patron, Gaea, wishes me to tell you that your quest is futile. You are destined to fail, and your friends will die and their blood will complete the process and Gaea will awaken fully. But Gaea is generous, she says that you can either join your friends by facing death, or you can join her where you will never have to fear or fight for your lives again. Even if you do die in her service, she can always bring you back from the dead, it's a great offer. So what is your choice?"

Jason and his friends all looked at each other at once, and they shouted their answer at the Titan at the same time,

"No! We will never join you or Gaea! And we will not fail in our quest to save our friends and close the Doors of Death! Now leave us be, or we will resume our attacks!"

"You will regret this decision, demigods. By choosing this, you choose death and failure. Because I have an honor code, I will let you pass and travel by sea, but know the ocean itself will present you with many challenges, and I will be of no help to you. Also know that Gaea will destroy you and your friends the second you dock on land!" exclaimed Oceanus.

With that, the Titan of the Sea sank back into the ocean, leaving nothing to show he had ever been there, attacking the ship and trying to kill them. Jason didn't realize how much energy he had used to create the lightning storm, until the world started spinning and he nearly fainted.

Piper rushed over to Jason and caught him before he could collapse, and slowly lowered him to the floor, where he put his head between his knees. Thalia was going through the same thing, dizziness and all, because she had conjured just as much lightning as Jason had.

While this was going on, Nico was busy trying to perform CPR on Hazel, trying to get her to cough up the water in her lungs. But it wasn't until both Grover and Coach Hedge performed their satyr healing magic that Hazel's eyelids fluttered open and she stopped hacking up seawater.

"I think we should all head down to the sick bay, where we can regroup and rest," piped up Frank, who was supporting Hazel, who was looking very dazed and confused.

"Good idea, Leo. Hazel, Nico, Jason, and Thalia, can you all walk by yourself or do you need some help to get down to the infirmary?" inquired Piper.

"I know I can walk and I'm sure Jason can too, but we just have to hold onto the railings while traveling down the stairs. But I'm not sure about Hazel; Hazel, can you walk?" asked Thalia.

"Yeah, I can walk. I'm fine guys, really," assured Hazel.

"Then come on."

So all the demigods rose, with minimal amount of groaning, and traveled to the sick room where they all took a cot and sat down with huge sighs of exhaustion.

"Before we go to bed everyone, we have to regroup. So now-," Nico was suddenly cut off by a sudden rainbow that appeared before them. As everyone stared at the colorful rainbow before them, completely bewildered, an image began to form, until a complete picture could be seen.

Though the image shimmered and wavered, everyone could clearly see that they were seeing the Olympians gathered together on Mount Olympus. It took a minute for the demigods to recognize what they were seeing, but they soon knew that they were in fact witnessing the gods together on Mount Olympus, via Iris-Message. In an Iris-Message, you could communicate with someone if you threw a golden drachma into a rainbow as an offering to Iris, goddess of rainbows. While Jason had seen his friends send an Iris-Message, he doubted that they had ever received one.

"Hello children," boomed Jupiter, "I see you have all managed not to rip each other throat's out, that is very good. For both you demigods and us Olympians, because all of our children need to work together to close the Doors of Death and defeat Gaea and the giants. Now, we have a common problem though.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon/Neptune, and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena/Minerva, are trapped in Tartarus. From what we've gathered is that Arachne was dragging Annabeth in the chasm and she was about to fall in when Percy grabbed her. While Percy knew that he couldn't pull Annabeth up when she was entangled in spider silk, rather than letting her go, Percy fell into Tartarus with her. Is this how it happened?" asked Jupiter.

"Yes, my lord; we are traveling to Greece right now to meet and rescue them at the Doors of Death," responded Jason.

"But how will you seal the Doors of Death then?"

"We don't know yet, but we will figure a way to do it."

"Very well, we will let you deal with that, it is not our place to interfere. But you must be wondering what this is about, aren't you? Well, Neptune and Bacchus would like to speak to you about something," stated Jupiter.

"Thank you for that introduction, brother. Where is Grover, Thalia, Nico, and Tyson? I wish to speak to them because they know my son best and are closest to him," requested Neptune.

Grover, Thalia, Nico, and Tyson stepped to the front of the group where they could be seen clearly by the gods in the Iris-Message.

"Thank you. You four are Percy's best friends, and Tyson you're Percy's half-brother as well, so in your opinion, do you think Percy will survive Tartarus?"

"Absolutely, my lord. Percy is the most powerful demigod I know, if anyone come out of Tartarus unharmed and alive, Percy can," said Nico.

"That is a very kind praise of my son, Nico. Do the rest of you agree?"

Not only did Grover, Thalia, and Tyson nod their heads, every demigod, and satyr, did. Everyone was fully confident in Percy's powers, abilities, and determination to live and save Annabeth.

"Now, I want you all to promise me something. I want every one of you to promise me that you will do everything in your power to save my son when you reach the Doors of Death. This is so important to me, I request that everyone swear on the River Styx to this," demanded Neptune.

So they all took turns swearing on the River Styx that they would do everything they possible could to rescue Percy and Annabeth. Once they had all sworn to this, Neptune nodded his head in satisfaction, and turned the floor over to Bacchus.

"Listen up, it pains me to admit this but, the truth is that everyone, we gods included, really need that Peter Johnson and Annie girl. We are also going out of our minds up here not knowing what is happening to them, so we have devised a plan that will benefit both gods and demigods. It is just so happen that we know that both the satyr here, Grover, and Hades' kid there, Nico, both have empathy links with the boy. So we gods ask that Grover and Tyson come to Mount Olympus until the boy is rescued, so we know what is happening.

"Grover will be able to sense if anything happens to the boy, as will Nico, so this way we both know if anyone dies down there in Tartarus. Tyson is needed here for Neptune, due to him being Neptune's son as well and will provide a distraction for the sea god here from worrying about Peter Johnson 24/7. Since we have nothing left to discuss, we have to go and we are taking the satyr and the Cyclops with us," stated Bacchus matter-of-factly.

With that, the god of wine snapped his fingers and the rainbow disappeared, taking Grover and Tyson with it.

It was strange to witness two people disappearing before your very eyes, because one moment they were there and the next they were gone. For a moment, no one spoke until Jason decided to break the silence.

"Well, that was interesting."

This got some nervous laughter, but it seemed to relieve the tension in the room.

"I know we really do need to regroup and plan our next step, so otherwise we need to have a council meeting, but I think we can all agree everyone is too tired to do it now. So I presume I speak for everyone when I say we should all go to bed and get some rest," commanded Nico.

As there was the usual murmuring of people as they scattered off to their rooms to sleep, and Jason was about to do the same thing, when Nico placed a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Jason, can I talk to you a moment?"

"Sure," agreed Jason, completely puzzled at what Nico could possibly want to talk to him about in private.

Nico lead Jason to his room, which was completely plain and boring looking except for a few skull pictures that you would expect to see in death's child's room.

"Alright, I knew I had to share this with someone, I just didn't know who. But for the past few nights, in my dreams I have been witnessing what has been happening to Percy and Annabeth."

This was the last thing Jason expected to be talking about with Nico, but he listened carefully and intently as Nico described Percy and Annabeth's challenge with the river, Percy's summoning with Hades and then Gaea, and how the Olympians had saved Percy's life. This took a good half hour or so, and Nico only ended with his last dream which had cut off with the undead skeletons arriving.

"I see, why didn't you share this with the others?"

"Jason, I wanted to see this night's dream before I said anything. But I am going to say something at the meeting tomorrow, because the others need to know what is happening. Although, this isn't the only reason why I told you this, the other reason I told you this is so you can come with me this time into the dream to see it for yourself," explained Nico.

"Whoa, how are you going to take me on a dream with you?"

"Like this," with that, Nico placed his hands at either side of Jason's head, and Jason felt himself falling down, down, down and into blackness.

Jason opened his eyes to see that his body was nothing but mist and smoke and that Nico was right beside him, his body the same way.

"What did you do?"

"Placed the both of us into an enchanted sleep," calmly responded Nico, as if he was discussing the weather.

"You and your powers are really freaky sometimes, dude."

Nico just responded with a shrug and signaled him to be quiet and to watch the scene in front of them, because Percy and Annabeth had just come into view and were battling hundreds, if not thousands, of undead skeletons.

The skeletons looked like they had just stepped out of the grave and decided to start dueling and killing people because that was how creepy they looked. Percy and Annabeth were both very skilled with a sword and dagger, respectively, but even their talent was no match for the mass numbers of the skeletons. Jason saw that his two friends were becoming quickly overwhelmed and overpowered.

But more than that, Jason watched Percy's eyes as he slashed hundreds of skeletons with his sword, and saw that there was a both dazed and wild look in his eyes. Jason saw a little of the same look in Annabeth's stormy gray eyes, but it was severe and could be clearly observed in Percy's sea-green eyes.

Just when Jason thought that his friends were goners and the skeletons were about to kill them, a roar was heard above. Jason looked up with the rest of the creepy undead skeletons to see the source of the noise, and what he saw made his heart sink to his stomach.

What Jason saw was the giant, Polybotes, approach Percy and Annabeth, making the rest of the skeletons scatter in fear. Jason heard Polybotes threaten to kill Percy and Annabeth, and Jason knew that Polybotes would do it, considering it was because of Percy that he was down there in Tartarus.

Jason recognized the fact that he wasn't there with his friends physically, but that didn't stop his heart from pounding in fear for them. As Polybotes raised his club to beat Percy, the dream dissolved into nothing.

Before Jason knew it, he woke with a start and was lying in a crumpled heap next to Nico, who had already come to and was waiting for Jason to gather his wits.

"Oh my gods, Percy!" cried Jason, in anguish for his friend.

"I know, I wish we could do more, but we can do nothing but watch as the dreams unfold," stated Nico, in despair.

"Alright, but did you see Percy's eyes?"

Nico nodded grimly and said, "Yeah, I did."

"Furthermore, do you realize this means that Percy and Annabeth could be battling Polybotes this very second?"

"We don't know exactly when that happened; remember, time can be very different from here in the mortal world and in the Underworld/Tartarus. But yeah, I do know that our friends have a very big problem on their hands right now."

"You know what we need to do now, right?" Jason asked.

"Absolutely, we need to call a council meeting with the others. There I'll tell everyone what I've been dreaming, their significance and what that look in Percy's eyes could mean," Nico declared.

As Jason got up to wake the others, he couldn't help but thinking of how Polybotes was about to beat and kill Percy and Annabeth, and how the look in Percy's eyes made him look like he was slowly losing his mind in Tartarus.


	12. Chapter 12

** Chapter 12- Jason**

"Order! Order! I call this meeting to order! Silence!" ordered Jason Grace, son of Jupiter.

But this made no difference on the buzz of chatter that was coming from the demigods gathered in the cramped council room they were using for the war council meeting.

"Alright everyone, shut up! The next person who talks gets to deal with an army from the Underworld!" thundered Nico di Angelo, son of Hades.

This immediately quieted everyone down, because they knew Nico had absolutely no sense of humor, so he would make good on his threat of summoning the dead if necessary to shut them up.

"Thanks man; Nico and I called this meeting for a reason, and we would like to get started. Alright Nico, tell them about your dreams from your empathy link with Percy," said Jason, gesturing for Nico to take the floor again.

"I want to tell you guys first why I didn't speak up right away, I wished to see the dreams play out but now I know I have to tell you guys what's happening to Percy and Annabeth in Tartarus.

"As you all know, Percy's power is over water. Now what we didn't know was, that there is water in the Underworld that acts like acid, and if Percy ever touches it, then it burns his skin. This water is blessed by the giant, Polybotes, the giant born to battle Poseidon, Percy's father. All the water in Tartarus has been touched by Polybotes, making it acidic for Percy," explained Nico.

After that introduction, Nico described to the others how Percy and Annabeth had to cross the river to get to the other side to continue their journey and how Percy slammed into the boulders and fell into the cursed river and trapped by seaweed, only to be mysteriously shot out into the sky. Nico had just gotten to the part where Percy had passed out after Annabeth grabbed him, when he was interrupted by Piper.

"Wait, Percy was shot out of the water?"

"Yeah, why does it matter how Percy escaped?"

"Because he shouldn't have been able to do that. I can only compare that to on how Percy once escaped the telekhines by blowing up and out of Mount St. Helens. Remember he is the son of the god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes; so if he really was in grave danger, don't you think he would be able to shoot himself out of a river?"

"You may have a point, Piper, but don't forget that the river Percy was in is poisonous and acidic for him."

"But it's still water! You said yourself, though Percy was burned by the water in the river, he still was able to draw strength from it," countered Piper.

"So you're saying that Percy can still control all the water down there in Tartarus, even if it burns him?" pondered Nico.

"That's exactly what I'm saying; because the water in Tartarus was regular water first before Polybotes touched and blessed it, making it acidic for Poseidon and his children," concluded Piper.

"While that is both good and bad news because that means Percy has a powerful weapon in battle but that would mean severely hurting himself in the process. Anyway, let's continue with the dream," declared Nico.

After that, Nico moved on to tell the others about how Percy was summoned with a meeting with Nico's father, Hades, and Gaea via dream. Nico described the offer Hades made to Percy and also how Gaea was trying to break and kill him. As Nico expected, the group roared with outrage at the thought of Percy becoming Hades' immortal lieutenant for all time.

"Guys! I know for a fact that Percy doesn't want to do it any more than we would, but he is considering it because he knows it could greatly help us defeat the giants," reasoned Nico.

"That's idiotic! The gods on Mount Olympus should be helping, not always relying on us to fight their battles!" cried Leo.

"I know, I know! But remember this is Percy and the Olympians we're talking about. Percy will go to hell and back, literally, for his friends and the gods are too stubborn to admit that they need their children as much as their children need them. But we can't do anything about it now, so can I please continue?"

With some grumbled response that yes, he could continue with the empathy link dream, Nico continued on with his story.

"When Percy came back around, the gods had appeared before him and Annabeth, in their Greek form for them of course, but their hopes were dim. They saw Percy dying from his injuries in the river, and he would have, if Poseidon hadn't put some of the sea into Percy's veins to heal him. While this did save Percy from death, he is still injured, but functioning. Although as soon as the gods left, undead skeletons arrived and started attacking Percy and Annabeth.

"Before you guys start interrupting, know that I have full faith in my father would never stoop as low as attacking Percy just because he didn't automatically agree to become his lieutenant for life. These undead skeletons were just plain creepy and unnatural, and this is coming from the son of Hades, and I have to say that they would have freaked even me out. When Percy or Annabeth slashed or killed them, they collapsed into a pile of bones but then immediately reformed and went back to attacking.

"These skeletons would have outnumbered, overpowered, and killed Percy and Annabeth if something hadn't stopped them and made them flee in terror. Now you would think whatever had saved Percy and Annabeth would be a good guy and a hero, right? Well, wrong. Completely incorrect, you couldn't be more far from the truth if you tried. What made the skeletons flee and stop their attack was the giant, Polybotes himself, the rival of Poseidon, and who Percy had killed back at Camp Jupiter," finished Nico.

"Wait, what happened with Polybotes?" everyone demanded at the same time, once they saw that Nico wasn't going on with the story.

"I don't know," was Nico's grim reply. "The dream ended there, with Polybotes arriving, and about to Percy's head with a club."

"So our friends could be dead right now, or dying at the hands of Polybotes, and we wouldn't know? That's what you're saying?" inquired Thalia.

"No, I-," but Nico suddenly cut himself off with a loud gasp and his eyes crossed and his knees buckled in pain.

"Nico! What's the matter?" the group cried in unison that is everyone except Hazel, who stared at Nico with pity in her eyes.

"Guys, what's happening is that Nico is feeling the battle with Polybotes right now and the blows Percy is receiving. This is why I was outraged at the empathy link in the first place," explained Hazel for Nico.

Just then, Nico howled with pain and clutched his right shin. This lasted only about a moment, only because he next grabbed his side in agony. While this new injury lasted a little longer than the last one, it was again interrupted with Nico bellowing in pain and clutching his throat as if someone was strangling and burning him at the same time. But just as abruptly as this episode started, it stopped, and left Nico lying there in a heap, gasping for breath.

"Nico, you ok?" Hazel nervously asked her brother.

"I am, but I can't say the same for Percy. Let's get on with this meeting, before another episode comes and I'm not able to continue."

No one seemed eager to continue so soon, but they agreed that they didn't want to be interrupted by another incident via empathy link.

"Guys, I need to tell you something, and this really isn't easy to say. Jason, help me out here and then it may be easier for me to explain it. Please describe Percy's eyes as he was battling the skeletons," requested Nico.

"Alright, anything to help. Percy is an unbelievably skilled and talented fighter, even with just his sword and no water power, but his expression during this battle scared me, especially his eyes. There was an extremely dazed but wild look in them, like he was slowly losing his mind; I saw it too with Annabeth, but it was mostly in Percy's eyes and mind," grimly described Jason.

"Thanks Jason for describing that, and I'm sure that's how my eyes looked when you guys rescued me from the giants. I didn't look like that because of being trapped in a jar for a week, I got them from my 10 minutes in Tartarus.

"You guys will never understand what Tartarus is like, and what is in it. There are monsters older than the Titans, so horrible and gruesome, they were gladly tossed into the abyss without a second thought, because their sole intent in life was being pure evil and cruel. In fact, there is a reason why the monsters we kill go to Tartarus, it is supposed to be a punishment to be with them. What I saw was so awful that I nearly went insane, and I was in there 10 minutes and I never even reached the bottom, like Percy and Annabeth have.

"What they have seem I'm not even going to try to guess because whatever I could come up with, anything would be a gazillion times worse and horrible. They have been dealing with endless monsters and enemies, many who have grudges against Percy because he had killed or defeated them, so they will have a battle or a new challenge around every corner of the way, and always be fearing for their life and safety. But also to be constantly being the only one who have very good fighting skills, and furthermore, to be protecting the girl you love from every danger, is going to make anyone lose their minds. So not only will be and is, Percy struggling physically with his injuries, he is struggling to keep sane too."

This information on how Tartarus can affect your sanity seemed to take a while to sink in for everyone, but once they did, they were shocked they hadn't considered Percy's mental state and how he and Annabeth were coping with the trauma.

"Now, we must discuss us, at least for a minute," said Nico. "As I'm sure you have all noticed that monster attacks have been increasing drastically for us, which is because we are nearing our arrival in Greece. I can sense it because I feel a draw due to what we are searching for belongs to my father, and I feel like it is near Sparta. Hazel, can you feel it too?"

Hazel nodded at her brother, grimly, signaling that she too, could feel the draw of the House of Hades.

"Since Hazel and I are children of Hades, or Pluto if you're Roman, we should lead the way. Not only did I promise Percy before he let go, that I would lead you guys to the Doors of Death, but we will be able to control the Underworld guards better than you guys could if you were leading. Furthermore, I can raise the dead to help us if necessary though it would drain my strength, but Hazel can do her new jewel trick and chuck a bunch of precious metals at enemies without even breaking a sweat.

"The next order of business is how the Hunters and Thalia fit into this. Thalia, what do you think?"

"We Hunters will aid you until you tell us to do differently, and I speak for every Hunter of Artemis," promised Thalia.

"Very well, thank you. I think though the final task will be done by the Seven Demigods of the Prophecy, and as we aren't part of it, we won't be in that. However, I do think we will greatly be needed by our friends in the battle," said Nico.

"Well-spoken for someone so young, but our next item on the list is again back to Percy. It's about his best quality which is also his fatal flaw, his loyalty," declared Thalia.

"I know, I have been thinking of this for a long time. We know Percy is going to try to sacrifice himself to close the Doors of Death to save us and/or Annabeth from doing it, because the Doors have to be sealed on both sides. So we have to agree on something, not only for ours and Percy's and Annabeth's sake, but also to keep our promise to the gods, mostly Poseidon. We swore on the River Styx that we would protect and save Percy, and I have a feeling we would have one heck of a storm to deal with if the god of storms and earthquakes thought we broke our oath by letting his son seal himself in Tartarus," thought Nico.

"That's it!" Frank suddenly cried. "Maybe our oath to protect and save Percy is the oath to keep with a final breath! So this means that no matter what, we have to rescue Percy and Annabeth from Tartarus!"

Everyone seemed to be content with this, even if this wasn't the oath the prophecy referred to, it still meant saving their friends from that awful abyss.

"Wait Nico, what is near the Doors of Death? Think! Imagine it in your mind; you too, Hazel!" suddenly ordered Jason.

At the same time, Nico and Hazel responded with "A lake, or more accurately an ocean where all those rivers meet and flow in and out of. Also there are several volcanos surrounding the ocean, which are currently very active with lava. Why do you need to know this though, Jason?"

"Nothing, it was just a thought; I just pray I'm wrong with what this could mean in the future," Jason mysteriously responded, declaring the matter closed with an intimidating look to everyone.

"Alright, I think that's enough for one day. Jason, can I have a word with you?" proclaimed Piper.

With that, everyone stood up and stretched, satisfied at what they had accomplished and learned in this meeting. Except Piper and Jason, who was being dragged by his girlfriend to the stables, because all the other rooms were currently occupied.

"Jason, I felt my knife twitching and glowing back there, which is why I wanted the meeting to be adjourned because I know it's trying to show me something and I want you to see it too," proclaimed Piper.

After she had finished her last sentence, Piper pulled out her oracle knife, which actually used to belong to Helen of Troy. Instantly, an image formed on the knife, playing a scene like a movie on it.

On the knife, Jason and Piper saw the Romans planning an attack on the Greeks, and were gathered in a huddle with Octavian leading the discussion. Unlike other visions, this time the knife played sound so they could actually hear what the Romans and Octavian were planning.

"Alright everyone, in a week we commence the first battle on Camp Half-Blood, our enemies for eternity. I want each and every one of you to kill or maim as many Greeks as you can, they deserve it, don't think anything differently. But most importantly, I want you to find the traitor, Percy Jackson. I wish for someone to capture him, hurt him in the most painful ways possible, and then bring him back to me to be executed the proper Roman way that we do to traitors.

"Perseus swore on his life that the Greeks were to be trusted, and then they attack us, so we hold Percy Jackson responsible for this, and he will pay! I have seen in the prophecies that the gods favor us in this battle, so we will be victorious against our enemies!" claimed Octavian.

"Wait, Octavian! Don't you think we should hear the Greeks, and Percy, out first?" frantically inputted Reyna, to try to diffuse the situation.

"Reyna, the Greeks fired their weapons at us for no reason at all; they do not deserve a chance to try to lie and excuse their actions. Now I need to rest and consult the gods," calmly responded Octavian to his fellow Praetor.

With that, Octavian strode out of the battle circle, past Reyna who looked like she wanted to throttle him, into Central Park like the whole world was his to command. After Octavian had walked a good distance into an old deserted camp site, he spoke to someone Piper and Jason couldn't see in the knife,

"I have done as you have ordered, your Highness. The foolish Romans are going to hunt down Percy Jackson and bring him to me," said Octavian to a figure that was just now coming into view, and who it was nearly made Piper drop the knife in shock.

"Very good, my young assistant, you will be rewarded greatly for your servitude to me. If Percy Jackson and that girl even do manage to escape their current predicament, and come here to aid their camp, they will be hunted down and captured once again!" cackled Gaea, in her sleeping dirt woman form.

"Anything to help, now I have to leave you again or my fellow worthless Praetor, Reyna, will come looking."

As Gaea sank back into the earth once again, a new form appeared from behind the trees.

"Are you Octavian, the Roman oracle?" asked this new person.

"Yes, and who might you be?" answered Octavian, clearly suspicious but also scared on how much this girl might have overheard or seen of his conversation with Gaea.

"I am Rachael Elizabeth Dare, the Greek oracle, though I am mortal. But I can tell you do not possess the Spirit of Delphi, you are a fraud!" exclaimed Rachael.

"No, I'm not! I am 3rd Roman generation, descending from Apollo, god of prophecies! So I am mostly certainly more of an oracle than you, a mere mortal!" defended Octavian.

"Have you ever made or spoken a prophecy?" demanded Rachael.

"Spoke a prophecy? Like read one and recited it?"

"See, this proves you are a fraud! I mean when the Spirit of Delphi possesses you, and you speak a prophecy for others!"

"Ridiculous! There is no such thing as being possessed!" scoffed Octavian

"I spoke the Prophecy of Seven! Do you even know it?"

"Of course, I read it in the signs from the gods."

"Then how do I know it goes like:

_ Seven half-bloods shall answer the call_

_ To storm of fire, the world must fall_

_ An oath to keep with a final breath_

_ And foes shall bear arms to the Doors of Death_," recited Rachael.

"You must have heard it from the traitor, Percy Jackson!" cried Octavian, desperate to prove this girl wasn't telling the truth of being a true oracle.

"I haven't seen Percy in 8 months, since Hera kidnapped him in the middle of the night and wipe his memory and dumped him with you Romans! So how would I have heard it?"

"Liar! I am done talking, I do not speak with people who lie!"

"Fine, I'm leaving anyway! But know this Octavian, you are a fraud and coward who is desperate for any kind of power. You will do anything to make yourself important, and you are up to something and I will find out what that is," promised Rachael, and spun on her heel and stormed off back to Camp Half-Blood.

After that scene, the image dissolved into nothing on the knife and Jason and Piper were left standing there shocked at what they had just seen. They probably would have stayed that way forever if Nico hadn't appeared at the door and entered into the room, completely oblivious to what had just been seen and witnessed.

"Guys, you have to see this! We have arrived in Greece, and we're not that far from Sparta and the House of Hades!"


	13. Chapter 13

** Chapter 13- Percy**

Percy Jackson dove to his left just in time before Polybotes' club came crashing down where he had just been standing.

"I will kill you, Perseus Jackson! Your death will be brought by my hand and the blood that runs in your veins will be spilt and the almighty Gaea will awaken from her many centuries long slumber!" bellowed the giant, Polybotes.

"Why is everyone offering me this? Well, I'll tell you what I have told them when I was offered this, I prefer living to dying, so thanks, but no thanks on that proposal of killing me to wake Gaea," wise-cracked Percy.

It was clear right away that Percy diffidently said the wrong thing, because Polybotes turned a deep shade of purple in anger and screamed,

"You dare sass me boy? That wasn't a real proposition that was a proclamation! For your cheek, I will torture you and cause you horrible agony before finally ending your life!"

Polybotes raised his hand as if to hit Percy, but instead closed his palm into a fist in Percy's direction, specifically at his chest, and made a sharp twisting motion. Percy was very confused at first at what the giant was doing, though Percy knew it was nothing that would end well for him, when he felt the first wave of torture.

The pain was worse than all of Percy's injuries combined and multiplied by 500; that's how bad it was. It felt like his blood had suddenly turned to acid and was scorching his skin from inside his body. Percy thought he had never screamed louder from the agony in his life, he could hear his anguished howls echo around them and heard Polybotes laughing giddily at Percy in so much pain.

After Polybotes had had enough gloating above Percy, he turned away, but kept up the torture, and strode over to where Annabeth stood, frantically searching for her knife. But by the time she found it a couple of feet away, Polybotes had come to her and was about to crush her with his club.

Luckily, Annabeth saw this move and dove into a roll just in time before her skull was smashed in but she was weaponless and she couldn't keep ducking and rolling forever. So trying to ignore the agony in every fiber of his being, Percy slowly rose from the ground and raised his sword.

Polybotes had let his guard down while he was pursuing Annabeth, so he didn't know Percy had risen from where he had fallen until Percy stabbed the giant as hard as he could in his unprotected foot. The giant immediately dropped his club and clutched his injured foot, hopping, until the oil, the thing that was his blood, had stopped flowing, and he picked up his club again, angrier than ever.

After his foot was fully healed, which only took about 5 minutes, Polybotes whirled around to face Percy. As the giant spun, he held his club out and whacked Percy in the head with a sickening crack, which sent him sailing to a tree nearby that he smacked into and fell to the ground, and lay still with blood pouring out of his head from an alarming looking gash.

As Percy lay there, barely conscious after taking such a hard hit to the head with a club and a collision with a tree, the giant smiled to himself, satisfied, and strode toward Percy's limp body that barely had life in it.

Polybotes would just let the boy be and kill the girl then come back for the boy, but where was the fun in that? The irksome boy had managed to hurt him, and he was going to pay for that.

Percy was barely able to lift his head off the pool of blood it was in, to see Polybotes approach where he lay. In fact, Percy was almost so far gone, that he barely registered the fact that Polybotes had picked up his right leg, and was now studying it with interest.

"You injured me, Sea Spawn. Now I will make good on my promise and hurt you in return. Then just as you are about to lose your mind from the torture, then will I kill you. So prepare yourself for the torture and agony of the century."

Poseidon's greatest enemy picked up the Sea God's son's fragile little human leg again, and carefully positioning it in his hands, snapped it clean in half, so it now lay at a truly unnatural and frightening angle, completely useless to the boy now.

When the tibia and fibula snapped, Percy howled in agony at his badly broken leg. He was now completely conscious, but almost wished he wasn't, for what Polybotes did next.

The giant bent down and picked up a rather long and jagged piece of broken glass and held it up so Percy could clearly see it and knew what he was going to do.

"I told you that your blood will wake my mother, and as I cut you, you will lose most of your blood, so then I will carry you to where my mother is ready to rise again, and perform the ceremony with the blood that seeps from your lifeless body."

Quick as a snake, Polybotes made a deep gash, forming an X, across Percy's side, crisscrossing it with the gash that exposed his busted ribs, that was just now starting to heal. Percy held himself from screaming with the pain and the blood that was gushing from the gash, but he couldn't stop himself from wincing.

Percy almost wished that there was some water nearby, even if it meant burning himself, just to heal his horrible wounds. But if Percy had thought that Polybotes was finished with him, he was wrong because the giant hadn't even revealed his most dangerous card.

Polybotes made that fist motion again but this time aimed it at Percy's exposed neck. Though Percy's eyes rolled back into his head, he did not pass out but just kept bellowing from the excruciating pain of his very blood boiling and turning to acid inside him.

While Percy's lifeblood streamed freely out of the deep cuts on his head and side, his right leg hung useless and broken at a painful angle, and he thrashed around in unbearable agony from Polybotes' trick turning the water in blood acidic for the Sea Spawn, he forgot about the girl until a knife entered his back, crippling him for a few moments.

"You filthy ugly disgusting creature! Why would you do this to someone?" screamed Annabeth, in anguish for her boyfriend.

Gaea's child turned back to the girl and was about to kill her too, when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

When Percy had seen how Annabeth was sacrificing herself for him, he played his very last hand. He called upon the Blessing of Ares, something he had only seen once on Clarisse during the Titan War which pretty much made her invincible.

Apparently the Blessing had worked, because Percy was able to stand, even with his broken leg, and raise his sword in his working left hand. Silently, Percy sent a prayer up to Ares, something he thought he would never do, thanking him for the blessing and also hoping that the blessing of a god also counted as working with a god to defeat and kill a giant.

With Polybotes' back turned from him, Percy threw his sword like a javelin at his father's greatest enemy, and watched it enter the giant's neck.

"Polybotes, I have just killed you, which is what you can tell Gaea when you return to her, because I have the Blessing of Ares. Good-bye, and good riddance," declared Percy, in a mock farewell.

As Percy watched the giant thunder in anger that he wouldn't be killed again, and all of that stuff, as he crumbed into nothing, but Percy heard something in the distance. A snort of a bull, something he had only heard twice in his life, times he would gladly forget. That snort down here belonged to the Minotaur, the first monster Percy had ever killed.

But to make matters worse, that monster was charging straight at him, with a look of pure hatred in its eyes.

"Hey ugly! Yeah you, bull breath!" shouted Annabeth at the Minotaur, desperately trying to distract it.

The Minotaur perked its ginormous head toward the insults and turned around to face whoever dared to insult it. This gave Percy the distraction he needed to get his wits together and picked up and resumed his sword stance again, ready to kill the monster for the 3rd time.

"Minotaur! Yes you, half-bull and half-human thing! Are you going to make me kill you for the third time now or can you just save me the trouble and rip off your own horn?" sarcastically asked Percy, trying to sound all macho and tough.

Apparently, the fact that it had been killed twice by the same person was a sore subject for the Minotaur, because when the Minotaur whirled around in anger, its eyes flashed with hatred and it set off at full speed toward Percy.

Though Percy still had the Blessing of Ares, so he was surrounded with a red aura that increased anyone's anger and made them blind with rage, it didn't make Percy invincible like the Curse of Achilles had made him. So this meant that Percy was feeling every throb of pain in his shattered leg, which currently made him unable to dive to the side, so he did the only thing he could; Percy jumped into the air as high as he could with using only one leg as leverage.

Percy was able to leap about a foot off the ground, but it caused his vision to blur with pain. But that foot was enough because just then the Minotaur reached him and he was able to use its horns as a vault and flip mid-air, which hurt like Hades, and landed on both of his legs, including his broken one, very painfully but managed to stay upright to face the Minotaur again, which had its back turned toward him.

The Minotaur hadn't gotten any smarter since their last battle because he didn't know where Percy was, even though he was right behind it. Since his sword lay where Percy had dropped it when he flipped, Percy lunged at the Minotaur with his bare hands and tore one of its horns off its head. With the Minotaur dazed and confused with pain, Percy frantically felt his pocket and found that his sword had reappeared there and he uncapped it and plunged his faithful weapon into the Minotaur's back.

Just like Polybotes had disintegrated when Percy killed him, the Minotaur did the same thing. Within 10 seconds there was nothing left of the half-bull and half-human creature except dust and sand.

In the past hour Percy and Annabeth had battled thousands of undead skeletons, Polybotes who turned his blood to acid, and the very dim Minotaur. Even though he had the Blessing of Ares for 2 out of the 3 battles, Percy felt it wearing off and he was so exhausted and in so much pain, he was seconds from passing out and his knees buckled from the pain of standing on his broken leg, only for him to be caught just before he hit the ground by Annabeth.

"Percy, are you ok? Oh gods, your leg! I'll kill Polybotes for doing that to you!"

"I kind of already beat you to that, Annabeth. But I'm fine, let's get out of here, before we get attacked again."

"Are you sure? I heard your leg snap and your head and side are still bleeding, you really should rest."

"Annabeth, I think we are getting close to the Doors, so that's why so many monsters are attacking us. But really, I'm fine and I can walk, so we really should go," insisted Percy.

"Alright, but the moment we stop to rest, I am looking at that leg and those lacerations, because they look really deep and are costing you a lot of blood. Here, let me help you up."

But the moment Annabeth had aided Percy to his feet, they heard a voice behind them.

"I must congratulate you two for getting this far, unfortunately, your journey ends here with your death. So now say good-bye to life!" cried Dr. Thorn, the French manticore that they had defeated when they were 13, appearing behind a group of trees.

"Why can't we get a break?" shouted Percy to the creepy blood red sky.

"Surely, you realize you wouldn't be able to reach the Doors of Death without being stopped, defeated, and killed?" wondered Dr. Thorn.

But the French manticore didn't give them a chance to respond because he suddenly lunged at Percy, wrapping his spiked scorpion tail around his throat, cutting off his oxygen but also digging the razor-sharp points into the exposed flesh, releasing the poison that caused unbearable pain into Percy's veins and arteries.

Percy's eyes bulged from lack of oxygen and he started twitching uncontrollably from the pain of the poison from the spikes. He was seconds from passing out, and then dying from asphyxiation.

Out of the corner of his darkening vision, Percy saw Annabeth scoop up her dagger and charge Dr. Thorn, stabbing him in the chest, causing him to release Percy from his death grip. Even though he crumbled to his knees, ignoring the agony in his leg and side, gasping and gagging for breath and clutching his pierced throat.

But Percy didn't get to recuperate for long because after Dr. Thorn had dropped him, the manticore had quickly turned and faced Annabeth, engaging her into an unfair battle. While Dr. Thorn had the mind of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion, all Annabeth had was her dagger and wisdom.

Annabeth was able to defend herself for a few minutes in battle, but she was no match for the manticore, who disarmed her by slapping the dagger out of her hand with his scorpion tail. Percy gave Annabeth credit for not showing fear on her beautiful face, but he knew that she was terrified of the manticore, especially since he was the one that kidnaped her 3 years ago.

Anyway, just as Dr. Thorn raised his tail to sting and kill Annabeth, Percy leapt to his feet and doing his best to ignore the agony of his leg and heavily bleeding side, he lunged at the manticore and tackled him to the ground.

Percy quickly drew his sword and stabbed the manticore straight through his lion chest where it met his human head, where he was most vulnerable and sensitive. So for the third time within the hour, Percy got to watch a monster dissolve into nothing but sand and dust.

Satisfied that the manticore wasn't coming back anytime soon, Percy sank into the ground where he struggled not to faint from exhaustion and pain. Annabeth rushed over to help him after she had reclaimed her precious bronze dagger from the dust of manticore, and knelt beside him.

"Percy, I know you're so tired and sore, but we really have to keep moving, I can feel the Doors of Death too like you said before. I promise you can rest soon and regain your strength, but sadly, not now. Here, you can lean on me to walk."

So that was how they traveled for the next 2 hours, with no breaks or rests. Annabeth almost dragging Percy along, while he struggled to stay conscious losing a lot of blood from his head wound and the long gash on his side, though he didn't dare say this, because it would only add to Annabeth's worries.

The two of them probably could have traveled that way even longer than 2 hours, but they ran into a rather scary group of monsters that Percy hoped they would never cross again, after having battled them in Camp Jupiter.

What the group consisted of were completely evil centaurs, which reminded him of Chiron, Cyclops, that looked a lot like Tyson, and hellhounds, who bore a great resemblance to Mrs. O'Leary, the only tame hellhound in the world.

But none of these creatures were tame or peaceful, they wanted blood and to fight. Unfortunately for Annabeth and Percy, they had the blood and they were the ones that had to fight them.


	14. Chapter 14

** Chapter 14- Annabeth**

Annabeth saw hurt flash through Percy's bloody and scarred face as he recognized the monsters that they were now facing as centaurs, Cyclops, and hellhounds. Both of them knew friendly centaurs, Chiron and his brothers, a harmless Cyclops, Tyson, and a tame hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary. She knew that in Percy's mind, and in her mind too, that they saw these monsters as their friends, not their enemies, so they hesitated a second to raise their weapons to defend themselves. This was a very big mistake.

The moment that Annabeth's and Percy's faces softened and showed hesitation on attacking, the various types of monsters lunged at them, with their fangs, claws, and weapons ready and prepared to kill.

Unfortunately, after barely being injured their whole time in Tartarus, while Percy spent his whole time wounded and in serious pain, Annabeth's luck ran out when a hellhound scratched her shoulder. The scratch was not at all deep and barely bled at all, but that didn't prevent it from hurting. Though Annabeth had experienced pain worse than this, for example, when she stabbed in the arm with a poisoned knife, but this fact didn't make the pain go away.

But this thought was quickly cleared from her mind when Annabeth thought about how much pain Percy must be in, fighting many battles with a shattered arm, a dislocated shoulder, several fractured ribs, a cracked skull, a concussion, a broken leg, a head wound that was still bleeding into his eyes, and a large deep gash on his side that was currently gushing blood. So with these lovely thoughts, Annabeth put her own pain out of her mind and joined her boyfriend in the battle with the evil centaurs, Cyclops, and hellhounds.

Just as Annabeth pulled herself together, she saw that Percy was dominating the battle entirely, killing and disintegrating monsters wherever he swung his sword. Though his face was contorted in agony from lunging and running on his broken leg, and the movements he made with his sword aggravated his broken ribs and the long gash on his side, his sea-green eyes flashed with hatred.

At first, Annabeth wondered what could possibly make Percy's eyes burn with so much hatred, but then she quickly realized he was so angry because he saw the hellhound scratch her and he was ferociously protective of her. _Aw, Seaweed Brain_, Annabeth thought, and jumped into the battle.

It was just their luck though to get separated during the battle. The minute Annabeth engaged a centaur in a duel; Percy was lost from her view in the crowd of the thousands of monsters.

Annabeth must have destroyed five hundred centaurs, Cyclops, and hellhounds with her bronze dagger before she heard something that made her heart stop in fear.

"Help! Annabeth, help me! They're torturing me! Ow, my arm! Great, now I really can't fight, with both of my arms broken! Please come to me, Annabeth!" pleaded Percy at the edge of the battle, which was about half of a mile or so from her current location.

Immediately, Annabeth killed the hellhound she had been battling, and made her way to where she heard the cry for help, disintegrating as many monsters as she could on her way.

Looking back on it, Annabeth realized that she should have known that Percy would never ask for her help in the midst of a war, but she wasn't exactly thinking rationally at the time as she sprinted toward where Percy had cried for help.

Just as she reached the clearing where the plea had been made, Annabeth saw something she never thought she would see again, a Cyclops trap; just like when she was 7 and she, Thalia, and Luke had entered a Cyclops' cave.

When Annabeth saw the group of Cyclops that formed a circle around her, trapping her and making it impossible to flee and escape, her mind froze in terror. Only after one of the Cyclops did another imitation of Percy's voice, crying the same things it had before to lure her into the trap, did Annabeth realize that Percy really wasn't captured and even more badly injured, that the Cyclops had just wanted to trap and kill her, using Percy's voice to lure her.

"What do you want?" bravely demanded Annabeth.

"Why, we want your precious boyfriend, the Sea Spawn! True, we want you too, but you are much easier to manipulate and break, the Ocean Brat is another story. So we just imitated his voice to lure you here, and we will do the same thing to your precious Perseus, only using your voice. That boy should have listened to Athena when she warned him that his loyalty was his fatal flaw, and then maybe he wouldn't be in this situation or even in Tartarus!" claimed the Cyclops.

"May I ask why do you want Percy so badly?" asked Annabeth, trying to stall for time so she could come up with a plan to escape and save Percy from walking into a trap that would get them both killed.

"To waken Gaea of course! You do realize right that in a mile straight ahead is where Gaea is currently slumbering and getting ready to awaken, right? Why, you have done us a great favor by walking here by yourself, so we didn't have to capture and carry you here! So for this, I thank you!"

"Don't mention it; say how about to return our favor, you let us go?"

"Nice try, daughter of Athena, but no. Now-," but the Cyclops was suddenly cut off by dissolving into dust and sand with a glowing sword, which looked all too familiar, sticking out of the back of his head, with a very angry son of Poseidon holding it.

The death of their Cyclops leader startled the rest of the group, where they automatically turned to what possibly could have killed their friend, only to be killed themselves, before being able to register the angry demigod with the sword.

But Percy didn't just stop with killing the group of Cyclops, he continued on to murdering over half of their enemies in this current battle. He performed sword maneuvers that Annabeth had never seen him do, disintegrating hundreds of monsters at once.

Percy didn't wince or show any pain or hesitation during his one-man battle, he just powered on until there were mounds of sand and dust as tall as him surrounding the field. The monsters that hadn't been killed by Percy's sword and skill, fled in absolute terror of the powerful demigod.

"Annabeth, are you ok? I heard you cry for help and I came rushing over, prepared to murder anything that has ever laid a hand on you without your permission," rambled Percy, in terror that Annabeth was in pain or hurt in any way.

"Percy, that was incredible! By the way, it was a trap that you walked into; I was never hurt, except for a hellhound scratch which is fine, but those Cyclops were trying to capture you and kill the both of us."

"What is with this constant need of killing us with these monsters down here?"

"They are monsters, Percy, they hate all demigods, but especially us, or more accurately you, because you have killed like 99% of everything here. Anyway, do you know what is in a mile straight ahead? Gaea, in her actual form!" exclaimed Annabeth.

"What?! This must mean that we are almost to the Doors of Death, she must be guarding it herself!"

"Yeah, but before we charge into another battle, can we rest for a moment? You look like you are ready to drop at any moment and I'm exhausted, plus you really should get off that leg."

"True, I should probably splint and bandage my wounds. Do you think you can help me?" sheepishly asked Percy, embarrassed that he needed help.

"Seaweed Brain, I'll help you with anything."

Since they didn't have any proper bandages or splints, the two had to make do with weeds, plants, mud, and wood for medical supplies.

When Annabeth rolled up Percy's pants leg to splint his broken leg, her eyes widened in horror at what his shin looked like. It was swollen an angry red, with some nasty purple in there, and the bone stuck out of his skin at a nauseating angle. Annabeth wasn't sure how Percy had charged into battle, 4 times for that matter, with this injury, when she barely could look at it.

"This is going to hurt a lot, but just know I'm here, ok?"

Not waiting for a reply, Annabeth took Percy's leg in her hands, just like Polybotes had done to break the bone, except this time, she was setting it, not shattering it. As quickly and gently as she could possibly manage, Annabeth reset the bone back into place, with a snap and a pop.

Annabeth flinched herself at the sound, but Percy hadn't even winced when she had reset his leg. She really had to give the guy credit for his bravery, and not just in the battlefield. So that was when she moved on to creating a splint and crutches from woods and mud.

It took a couple of minutes, but Annabeth had created an impressive pair of crutches and a decent cast for Percy's leg. Picking up the cast, she put it on Percy's broken shin and bound it in place using plants and mud to secure it.

Next, Annabeth picked up the rest of the plants and mud and began to create bandages for Percy's head wound and the long cut on his side. Though it took almost a half hour, she had successfully bandaged the gashes on Percy's head and side.

Just as Annabeth was about to congratulate herself on her medical work, she and Percy heard a loud eruption in the distance and smelled smoke in the air. With one look to Percy, they agreed that they should get moving and finally reach the Doors of Death.

So with minimal amount of gasping from Percy's side, they began to walk, or in Seaweed Brain's case, limping and hopping, to the loud eruption they heard and the smoke they began to see forming in the air around them.

Annabeth didn't know what to expect, but whatever she did expect, it wasn't what greeted them. Both Annabeth's and Percy's eyes widened in shock at what they saw; a gigantic ocean that must have gone on for hundreds of miles, and a ring of volcanoes that were still erupting lava, surrounding it.

But that wasn't even the most shocking part, there was a form rising under the huge ocean, and they immediately recognized the sleeping woman form. It was Gaea, almost full awake and ready to rise.

However, about halfway around the sea on their side, was the Doors of Death standing between volcanoes. There was lava everywhere, except for an extremely narrow path leading out of the wide-open gold and black Doors of Death. But as if the universe hadn't proven its contempt for Annabeth and Percy enough already, the path had to be completely blocked by Telekhines with their dog-like faces, black seal bodies, and flipper feet, who carried spears, javelins, swords, knifes, and every other weapon imaginable.

As the telekhines charged at them, Annabeth and Percy raised their weapons to defend themselves against the strange creatures and met them in yet another battle.

Annabeth could instantly tell that the Telekhines weren't meant to be fighting with real weapons because they were slow and clumsy which caused the first few rows to be instantly vaporized by Percy.

Apparently the telekhines realized this too, because they promptly dropped their weapons and raised their arms in unison, making them look very strange, well stranger than usual. While Annabeth had no clue at what they were doing, Percy knew, because he immediately threw himself in front of Annabeth as the first wave of lava hit them.

_So that's what that movement allowed them to do_, Annabeth thought to herself, _that really is a handy ability to just be able to burn their enemies to ashes whenever they desired to._ Actually, all their enemies except Percy because even though his skin was bright red and had some burns, he just looked annoyed and really mad.

Annabeth stared in wonder at her boyfriend, frantically trying to recall what he said 2 years ago what prevented him from being burned by lava. That's when it hit her; it was part of his water ability, with his dad being the god of the sea and everything water, it was much harder to burn Percy, than other demigods and mortals.

The telekhines remembered this at the same time Annabeth, because they growled in frustration at the fact that Percy wasn't a pile of ashes. But instead of learning from their mistakes, they just flung more lava at them, which Percy blocked with his sword, as he shouted for Annabeth to remain behind him.

This went on for a very long time, with Percy killing any telekhines that were in reach, and for them in return, to pelt him with lava. Finally, the telekhines, who Annabeth realized weren't that bright, because they never tried a combined attack, just individual blows, grasped the concept that they weren't doing any serious damage anytime soon to Percy.

So after this sank in for them, they withdrew their attack and skulked back to various volcanoes. But Annabeth knew this wasn't a win for her and Percy, it was a complete draw.

Percy sunk to his knee is exhaustion and was already passing out from the energy it took to maintain a perfect liquid balance inside him to repels the worst of the burns. But before he could black out entirely, and Annabeth didn't blame him for wanting to faint from the pain and fatigue, they heard their names being shouted in the distance.

For the past 2 weeks, every time their names were spoken by someone other than each other, it had meant bad news and a battle. So that is why Percy and Annabeth raised their heads toward the voices rather reluctantly, that is until they saw who it was.

It was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, Hazel, daughter of Pluto, Frank, son of Mars, Coach Hedge, satyr, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, and the Hunters of Artemis, all standing at the mortal side of the Doors of Death. Every demigod's face lit up with hope and pure joy of seeing their friends alive despite what Tartarus had done to them, that is until they heard the explosion and roar behind their friends.

Percy and Annabeth had been so distracted with seeing their friends in what seemed like a century, that they hadn't heard or paid attention to the army that had gathered behind them. That is until they heard a roar that shook the ground and rattled their teeth, the roar could only belong to one thing, a thing that the demigods had never battled, only the gods have, and they barely defeated it.

What caused that roar was Typhon, the gods' greatest enemy and opponent. The giant of all giants, the tallest man in the world only came up to his shin, and the thing was one of the hardest things ever to live to defeat, much less kill, and the gods had barely managed to do that when they found it. But even they had only done it by working together and combining all of their godly forces, armies, and powers.

That is what the demigods were now facing and to top that off, all the monsters they had ever faced, even some the demigods had never even heard of, joined Typhon in storming Percy and Annabeth, who still sat there, stunned. Their enemies desperately trying to prevent them from reaching the Doors of Death, their friends, and safety.

This was going to be the greatest, hardest, and most painful battle any of the demigods had ever fought in.


	15. Chapter 15

** Chapter 15- Hazel**

As Hazel saw the beautiful country of Greece appear on the shoreline, she sighed in immense relief. _We made it_, Hazel thought to herself, _we are going to save our friends from the depths of Tartarus and then defeat Gaea once and for all._ But there was a scream next to her, which cut Hazel out of her thoughts that they had finally made it to Greece without dying.

"Oh my gods! Greece is beautiful! We did it; we have finally arrived in Greece! It is such a gorgeous place!" squealed Piper, in a very un-Piper like way.

Hazel raised her eyebrows at Piper, wondering what had gotten into the usual tomboy girl.

"No! It's happening, I'm turning into my mom! This is not possible!" shouted Piper in horror at the aspect she could be anything like her mom, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Chuckling to herself, Hazel saw Jason, Frank, Thalia, Leo, and the Hunters arrive on the main deck to see what all the fuss was about. Hazel could literally pinpoint the moment when they all took in Greece, because all their eyes widened and their jaws dropped in amazement.

"Cool, right?" asked Hazel in satisfaction at their reactions.

Every demigod nodded mutely, still in shock of the glory and beauty that was Greece. Hazel let them enjoy the scenery for a couple more moments, but after a while she grew impatient with her friends, who were _still_ ogling everything.

"Alright people! Time to snap out of it! We have friends to save and a battle to fight now! There will be plenty of time for sight-seeing when we come back with our brave friends that we have missed so dearly! Let's get a move on!"

This seemed to snap everyone out of their stupor, because their eyes stopped being glazed with wonder and their faces began to harden with determination at saving Percy and Annabeth. But before everyone started to walk down the plank onto land, Nico suddenly called out to everyone, putting as much authority as he could in his voice.

"Wait! We have spent the last couple of weeks in the sea, though I'm not saying that it has been easy, but when we go on land, on the _earth_, I think Gaea will do everything in her power to stop us, or at least slow us down. So we need a plan."

"Right Nico, I can't believe I forgot about that. While I can fly, and Thalia may be able too, we can't possibly carry everyone. We will have to walk; also, we shouldn't leave the ship completely undefended against an attack, not unless we want a way out of here too., reasoned Jason.

"Fellow Hunters of Artemis, are you prepared to defend this ship at all costs, and use whatever means necessary to protect it?" suddenly demanded Thalia to the Hunters.

Not wasting a split second to hesitate, the Hunters of Artemis dutifully nodded back to Thalia, saying they would of course, stay behind to protect the Argo II. With that obstacle solved, the next problem was the transportation.

"While I hate Gaea, I doubt she has that much power to entrap all of us in the earth. So my suggestion is, that we should constantly keep moving because, though Gaea will pull on our feet and make it hard to walk, she won't be able to completely envelop us in the earth," recommended Piper, even daring to put some charm speak in her words.

Unsurprisingly, everyone nodded and agreed with Piper's suggestion on their means of transportation.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! We've got to save Percy and Annabeth from the abyss of torture and battle Mother Earth herself, what could go wrong?" half-joked Leo.

Not even bothering to respond to this, the seven demigods set off to do the impossible.

The moment their feet left the plank and touched the ground, they started to sink. They all sunk very slowly so they could easily pull their feet out of the ground, but they were forced to do this many times to avoid plummeting into the earth itself, so it quickly became annoying.

"Seriously, Gaea! Can't you give us a break!" shouted Leo to no one in particular.

So with this declaration hanging in the air, the seven demigods started walking, almost marching, toward Sparta, being led completely by Nico, and in the lesser extent, Hazel.

When the dictionary defined bad luck, it didn't give an actual definition, it just showed Hazel's, Nico's, Piper's, Jason's, Leo's, Frank's, Thalia's, Percy's, and Annabeth's pictures to show what bad luck meant. Hazel was seriously considering the fact that the galaxy had a serious grudge against these nine demigods, because it wouldn't cut them any slack in the luck department.

While Percy and Annabeth were currently in Tartarus, facing only Jupiter knows what, the other seven had not gone even a mile of walking when they came face-face with a vicious hydra with three heads, spouting fire at them.

Like they had rehearsed it, which they didn't, every demigod leaped into action. Jason and Thalia did their combined lightning trick again, zapping one head off, but unfortunately, Frank had by accidently sliced off one head with his lion claws, and instead of the one head just disintegrating, two heads grew back in its place.

Nico had taken out black scythe, but instead of engaging the hydra in battle with his friends, he plunged his weapon into the ground. Hazel was momentarily distracted from raising diamonds and other jewels from the Underworld by what her brother was doing, but she realized that he was calling on his power of the dead, when a large crack began to split the ground in half, coming from the black scythe buried in the earth.

Within exactly 2.8 seconds, there was tens of thousands skeletons coming out of the ground. Hazel's mind flew back to how Percy and Annabeth had been attacked by skeletons, but then she remembered that these particular skeletons were controlled by Nico at the moment.

So as Nico gave the air a push with his hands, the skeletons attacked the hydra. Obviously, the hydra hadn't been expecting this new attack, because it suddenly backed up several feet before it remembered it could breathe fire and spew poison. Though the poison and fire made the front line of the undead army crumble, plenty more just took their place.

After the rest of the group recovered from the shock of the unexpected aid of the dead, they immediately went back to their attacks, although Hazel had to say Leo's attack helped them the most.

Whenever a skeleton got a lucky strike against the hydra, Leo blasted fire from his palms and disintegrated another head, until only the immortal head was left, and the hydra was defeated.

When the hydra crumbled to sand and dust, leaving only one raging disembodied head, did the demigods lower their arms and weapons. While Thalia, Jason, and Leo looked worn out, Nico looked like the living dead. His face was gaunt, the skin stretched, and his eyes had dark bags against his milk-pale face.

As Nico began to sink to his knees in exhaustion, he caught himself, stood up straight, and lowered his arms and took his scythe out of the ground. This caused all the skeletons to seep back into the Underworld where they came from.

"Nico! Are you ok?"

"Fine, I can't imagine how Percy's like. Which is why we really need to get a move on, we are getting close to the House of Hades and the Doors of Death, I can feel it."

Just as Nico said this, Hazel began to feel a tugging in her gut guiding her just south west to where they were now. She could also feel tunnels underneath the ground, ready to use, if they ever needed to go down there, which Hazel sincerely hoped not because it would mean traveling farther into Gaea's domain.

They took another minute or so to rest and gather their thoughts, then the seven took off again on their noble and brave journey.

Hazel thought she would collapse from fatigue at any moment, but she knew they couldn't stop to sleep, without drowning in dirt. The group had been traveling for 2 days straight, right into the heart of Sparta, as Nico lead them around many twists and turns in the city-state. They had seen every single part of Sparta, including the old war battle scene statues that were pretty gruesome and odd, but they had not found the House of Hades or the Doors of Death.

Nico kept telling the group that any minute they would be there and rescue their friends, but around every corner was just another street or alleyway. No House of Hades or Doors of Death, nothing even resembling an ancient building or temple or doors.

Without Hazel using the tunnels to vaguely guide them, they would be even more hopelessly lost than they were now, which wasn't saying much. Just when everyone was going to collapse and give up on their impossible quest, they saw it. The House of Hades was not even 100 feet away from them, looking massive and intimidating right in the middle of a field.

It was made completely of marble with huge ancient columns supporting the whole temple from collapsing on itself. The whole thing was shiny as the sun hit it with its rays, but it looked brand-new, like it was built a day ago, and it wasn't centuries old, which was very strange. But if this wasn't weird enough, the whole temple wasn't made of white marble, it was made of a combination of black and gold marble, the colors for both Hades and Pluto.

From what the group of demigods could tell from where they stood in awe, there were hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and other works of art inside the temple. While most of the artwork displayed treasure and other various riches, they also displayed death. It wasn't gory or gruesome pictures of death, it was mostly of the parts of the Underworld and Elysium. This was the perfect combination of Pluto's and Hades' personalities and values.

The demigods quickly shook off their shock on how a massive temple just appeared out of nowhere, and sprinted toward the House of Hades. They were just climbing the 100 hundred steps leading up the temple itself, when a figure appeared right in front of them holding a sword.

This man would have looked like regular old red-neck if it wasn't for one thing, he had three chests. While Hazel didn't have a clue on who this man, or more accurately, monster, was, her brother obviously knew who he was, because his eyes narrowed and flashed with hatred at the sight of the creature in front of them.

"Geryon! What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!" exploded Nico, with pure contempt for this monster.

"Why, young Nico, son of Hades! Haven't you learned anything at all? The Doors of Death are completely wide open, making it so easy for anyone to come back to life, including me!"

"Wait a minute, who is this guy?" Hazel demanded.

"His name is Geryon, and this monster is complete scum. When Kronos was still alive and reforming, he tried to sell me to Kronos. It was only until after Percy killed him that I escaped his clutches and avoided being taken captive by Kronos, to be either killed or used to get to Percy," responded Nico, his voice oozing loathing for the monster in front of them, blocking their path into the House of Hades and rescuing their friends from the torture they were enduring down there.

"So Percy battled him?"

"Yup, he defeated and killed Geryon."

"What hasn't Percy killed? He is turning into the new Hercules, soon there won't be a monster around that hasn't been slain by him and his sword. Anyway, how did Percy kill Geryon?"

"Shot an arrow through all three of his hearts," said Nico, like the fact that Geryon had three hearts was completely normal.

"Three hearts!"

"Uh-huh; to kill him you have to hit all three at the same time. So Percy shot an arrow through his side, hitting all three of his nasty hearts."

"Ok, anyone got a bow and arrow handy? Jeez, where are the Hunters of Artemis when you need them?"

"I've got a bow and arrow, it was a gift from my dad. Also, I'm pretty skilled at archery, not just shape-shifting," piped up Frank.

"Fine, can you kill Geryon for us?"

"Sure, I would love to kill this piece of scum!"

But before Frank could notch an arrow, Geryon had seen where this was going and tried to bargain for his life.

"Wait, don't shoot! I'll make you a deal, my mistress wants a boy and a girl demigod, the rest of you can go into the House of Hades and then the Doors of Death and rescue your friends! I swear on the River Styx I will let you go if one male and one female stay behind and are sacrificed for Gaea!"

"That's a terrible deal! Why shouldn't we just kill you again?" demanded the group, in complete unison.

"Because this way you can save your friends' from dying, which they are doing now! Well not so much the girl, but the boy is not by any stretch looking good. Take this deal, and you can spare and save their lives!"

The group of demigods looked at each other, pretended to consider the offer, and then again shouted as one, "No! Go ahead Frank, and shoot him!"

Before the monster with three chests could draw his sword to protect himself, Frank had already rolled to the monster's side and shot a clear arrow with perfect aim that entered in one of Geryon's chest, went through the middle one, and exited out of the last chest. Instantly, Geryon disintegrated into sand and dust, leaving nothing of the creepy red-necked monster.

"Well, that was strange. Now, as much as I hate to say this, there should be more monsters and demons here, protecting the House of Hades," grimly observed Nico.

"I really hate this possibility, but the rest of the monsters are probably already in Tartarus, with Percy and Annabeth."

As the thought settled in the air, they saw a golden string appear out of nowhere. Everyone else was stunned and puzzled, but Nico and Hazel knew exactly what it was, and got up to follow the string, straight into the heart of the House of Hades.

While it took maybe a quarter of an hour to reach the absolute center of the temple, but they knew instantly they had finally reached their destination of the Doors of Death, because the doors stood in the dead center of the floor, elaborately colored with black and gold.

It was obvious that the Doors had been retched open, because there were several cracks along the frame and the lock and chain lay in pieces next to the Doors in a heap. The whole group could see beyond the Doors and into the depths of Tartarus.

Tartarus was terrifying; Hazel had absolutely no idea on how Percy and Annabeth had survived and kept their sanity throughout the several weeks they had been trapped there, with no escape.

When Hazel peered out of the open Doors of Death, she saw Percy and Annabeth, her missing friends, battling an army of telekhines all by themselves. What astounded Hazel was that Percy completely protected Annabeth from the lava that the telekhines were flinging at them, and he did not even seemed that hurt from the scorching lava.

In fact, Percy seemed to notice the heavy amount of smoke and ash in the air, did she mention that there were dozens of volcanoes of erupting around them, more than the lava hitting him. This boy never failed to amaze her.

Just then, the telekhines withdrew their attack and retreated to various volcanoes where they dove into the lava, feet first. Hazel expected to see Percy and Annabeth celebrating on not dying, but she sadly saw Percy sink into his knees, clearly exhausted and drained, and that's when Hazel saw how badly Percy really was injured.

Even from the couple of miles that separated them, Hazel could see that Percy's right arm was clearly broken, if not worse, his shoulder was dislocated, his right leg bended at a nauseating angle. If that wasn't bad enough Percy also had a long gash that ran from his shoulder to waist on his right side that was costing him a lot of blood at a very fast rate, a head wound that still oozed blood, and his sea-green eyes kept going out of focus and glazing over, like he had a nasty concussion.

Hazel's heart went out to the guy when she realized that he had fought many battles in this condition, and was probably in unbearable pain right now. That is when she shared a glance with her friends back at the 'safe side' of the Doors of Death and they all screamed for their friends' attention, to let them know that they had finally arrived to rescue them from this pit of torture.

"Percy! Annabeth! We're here!"

Annabeth's and Percy's heads snapped up at hearing their names being shouted, though Hazel noticed they did it with reluctance, that is until they saw who it was that had come to their rescue.

When Annabeth's and Percy's grimy, filthy, bruised, scraped, and battered faces lit up with happiness, Hazel's heart expanded in joy. That is, until she heard the roar that shook her very being to the core and made her want to curl up and hide in a corner from whatever that made that awful frightening noise.

What Hazel saw made her mind cower in terror because she had learned about this monster in mythology class. The monster was the god's greatest enemy, which they barely could defeat with combine forces and powers; it was Typhon.

Typhon towered over everything in the world, and made every being, human or not, cower in terror. This is what was approaching Percy and Annabeth who had not moved out of fright, and had brought the entire army of monsters of Tartarus with it, including many that had personal grudges to settle against the opposing army, which was made up of demigods that were horrified to be facing this.

_Well,_ Hazel thought,_ we know one thing. That this battle is not going to be a piece of cake to fight, let alone, win._


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16- Percy**

When Percy heard the deafening roar behind him, he nearly fainted from shock and fear. Without even turning around, he knew that the newest attacker was none other than the gods' worst fear and enemy, Typhon.

_I really can't catch a break these days, can I? _thought Percy to himself. But he took a deep breath, which hurt like Hades, and slowly spun around to face Typhon.

Typhon was so huge, you couldn't even see higher than his stomach, which was probably good because even up to there, he was hideous and deformed. But Percy could immediately see why his father and the other gods had such a hard time defeating this ginormous monster because the skin looked as impenetrable as iron and the monster had both a club and a sword in his hands.

Just then though, the giant of all giants turned around and strode to the far side of the Sea of Torture and volcanoes, where no one could get to him. For a few moments everyone stared dumbfounded at how Typhon just walked to the sidelines to watch the battle, and wasn't going to even bother participating in it, not that the demigods were complaining at this.

But their feeling of joy that they wouldn't have to battle Typhon, at least not at this moment, ended when a figure strode to the middle of the field. Percy could vaguely see that this figure was female, but that was it. That is, until the woman had almost reached to where he and Annabeth still knelt on the ground.

The woman was Medusa, fully reformed and angrier than ever, snake hair just as capable as before to turn you instantly into stone.

"Perseus Jackson, so we meet again! Only this time, I will prevail and you and your precious girlfriend will die and your blood will be spilled!" With that lovely declaration, Medusa lunged at Percy, who threw Annabeth behind him to protect her.

For a moment, Percy froze at the fact that Medusa was coming right at him, intent on killing him and Annabeth. But the moment was quickly over when Annabeth let out a blood chilling scream.

Percy quickly drew Riptide from his pocket and was able to deflect Medusa's deadly blow of her claws extended to tear his throat out. He stabbed Medusa in her chest, instead of dying, she just shrieked in pain and fury.

That is when Percy realized that since they were battling at the center and the most powerful part of Tartarus, he was going to have to hit every monster's weakest spot to be able to kill them.

When Medusa lunged again, Percy was ready. He dove to the ground and turned the move into a roll. Even though the movement nearly caused Percy to pass out, he was able to thrust his sword up when he rolled so it plunged itself into Medusa's stomach.

Even though this still didn't kill her, it left her momentarily gravely injured and unable to protect herself against another attack. So taking advantage of this, Percy approached the furious Medusa, carefully avoiding looking at her, and made a quick swiping motion with his sword, and beheaded her.

Percy quickly kicked Medusa's head away, ignoring his queasy stomach, so this way it wouldn't turn anyone to stone still. While Percy had hoped that his second defeat of Medusa would discourage and frighten the other monsters away, he had no such luck.

The minute that Percy killed Medusa, it was like an invisible barrier that had been keeping the monster army at bay, broke. So the whole wrath of all the monsters Percy and his friends had ever battled and killed, were rushing toward them to get their revenge.

This whole time, Percy had almost forgotten his friends that were at the Doors of Death. That is until, Jason and Thalia flew over to him, carefully avoiding the lava that was all over the ground. Apparently Thalia had learned to fly like Jason knew how to, but now was not the time to ask her when she had mastered that technique. Because just then, a drakon attacked the three of them.

Back during the Second Titan War, Clarisse had killed a drakon singlehandedly while she had the Blessing of Ares. But by now his own Blessing of Ares had worn off and he had no idea on how to defeat the drakon.

Luckily, Thalia and Jason reacted quicker than Percy did because they both immediately zapped the drakon with lightning from the palms of their hands. While this unfortunately did not kill the drakon, it burned its chest and left it momentarily disoriented.

Thalia and Jason kept up the lightning but they had a hard time penetrating the drakon's tough shield-like skin. Percy knew that he had to join the fight no matter how injured and exhausted he was, so he charged the drakon with his sword.

Percy barely escaped the acidic poison the drakon spat at him, but threw his sword like a javelin at the monster. The sword hit the drakon in the neck point-blank and it collapsed to the ground, where it lay writhing in pain.

Taking his chance while the monster was down, Percy speared the drakon through its heart and it instantly turned into monster sand and dust. The two back-to-back battles had really taken a lot out of Percy and he was already swaying on his feet but he knew he had a lot more of this war to fight before he could pass out.

While the fight with the drakon had been going on, Annabeth had dueled a sphinx, very similar to the one that they fought in the labyrinth all those years ago. The sphinx hadn't stood a chance when it got confused after Annabeth shouted at it,

"I am the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom! So I will show _you_ and your simple riddles wisdom!"

Even though the sphinx had the head of a woman and the body of a lion, it was conquered easily. All Annabeth had to do was plunge her bronze dagger into the sphinx's back, and it disintegrated into sand and dust.

Apparently after Percy had taken over the fight with the drakon, Thalia and Jason had took off to fight other monsters. Thalia had battled a Laistrygonian Giant, and while it was 10 times as tall as she was, it was defeated when Thalia shot lightning out of her palms and flew up in the air to the height of its head, ignoring her fear of heights, and zapped the giant into nonexistence.

While his sister was battling the Laistrygonian Giant, Jason had also flown into the air and was battling thirty evil harpies at once. These harpies were nothing like their friend Ella, they were vicious by trying to slash anything with their claws, including Jason.

However, all Jason had to do was zap a harpy once and it crumbled to dust. His only problem though was that the harpies were very fast so that little detail made Jason miss several times with his lightning, but eventually, he had defeated and killed all thirty evil harpies.

Before Percy could go on admiring his friends' battle skills and powers, he was almost killed by a scimitar controlled by Kampê.

"Sea Spawn, you have to die! So I will be the one to introduce you with your destruction!" thundered the old jailer of Briares, a Hundred-Handed One.

"Gee, no thanks. But I will settle for killing you, winning this war, and defeating Gaea, those are my terms," countered Percy.

"Die!"

Kampê attacked Percy again, desperately aiming for his heart with her twin scimitars, that would make him shrivel into dust. In retaliation, Percy did a quick jab to her stomach but had little effect on the monster.

He had to dive on his broken leg to avoid being shriveled to dust, and the way he landed on it made him think he had made the break even worse than before. To make matters worse, his gash on his side was starting to gush blood again, making him woozy with blood loss.

Percy was barely able to duck on the next attack, and he knew he needed help desperately if he was going to survive. Unfortunately, Percy also knew that all of his friends were dealing with their own separate duels and probably had no idea what he was dealing with at the moment. So Percy did what the only thing he could think of. He called water to him.

Since he was standing next to a huge sea of water, using his water powers shouldn't have been a problem at all. But he was in Tartarus, where the ocean was named the Sea of Torture for a reason.

So when Percy lifted his arm, clenching his fists, he also had to brace himself for the pain of touching and controlling poisoned water, that was acidic for him. His past experiences with the water were just like this time, even though he only controlled a little of the water and turned it into a wave to blind Kampê.

Even though Percy succeeded in his mission to blind Kampê, the water still burned him and made him feel excruciating pain on his arms, the exact places where the water had come in contact with.

With Kampê blinded and unable to defend herself, Percy quickly slashed off her head with his sword and the terrifying cruel monster turned into dust and sand. This immensely relieved Percy because it meant he didn't have to duck, roll, or stab anything for a while.

While his fight with Kampê had been going on, Percy saw that the chimera, the mother of all monsters, had arrived and was now battling Leo and Piper. Percy was about to help his friends out, despite the agony he felt in every one of his limbs, when the mother of all monsters shrieked in pain and crumbled to ashes.

The way Leo and Piper had been battling the chimera was that Piper spoke to it, making her voice ooze with charm speak, and tried to convince the chimera to leave them alone and persuade the other monsters to surrender from the war. This seemed to greatly confuse the chimera, giving Leo a chance to burn it to ashes, using his flaming hands.

Percy smirked, impressed with how well Leo and Piper were able to work together when they wanted to. Next, he suddenly saw Frank turn into a weasel to battle a basilisk. He was wondering how a weasel would defeat a deadly snake, no matter how small it was, since it could kill you with one look, when the basilisk fled in terror.

At first, Percy was thoroughly confused on how a puny weasel could make a basilisk flee when he remembered that the one thing basilisks feared were those tiny little rodents. Just then, Percy felt a tremor pass through the entire ground, making him and everyone else, lose their balance and topple over.

For Percy, it was extremely hard to get back up because his shattered leg was screaming at him in protest of putting so much pressure on it. In the back of Percy's mind he knew he had only ever felt that tremor in the ground when Nico used his Underworld powers.

So sure enough, when Percy turned around he saw that Nico and Hazel were working together to battle a whole army of undead evil skeleton warriors. But this time, Nico wasn't controlling the skeletons, he was fighting them.

That was when Percy realized that the skeletons that Polybotes had scared off, came back and the army seemed to have grown even more, if that was possible. It seemed like Hazel was using her power over the dead for the first time in her life because she was already shaking from the effort of forcing the skeleton army in the huge crack she and Nico had made in the ground.

As Percy was watching Nico and Hazel battle the skeletons, he had let his guard down. Because of this, Percy had not seen the wave of lava being flung at him until he was covered in scorching hot lava.

While the lava didn't burn him like the water did, how strange was _that_, it still hurt like Hades.

"Didn't we call a truce, telekhines?" demanded Percy as the strange little creatures flopped toward him, raising their arms again to bring another strike of lava.

"Never, Preseus Jackson! We will kill you!"

"Get in line; I'm pretty sure every monster down here wants to kill me, spill my blood for Gaea, blah blah blah. This is what I have to say to every monster, or person, that wants to kill me, I will not die so an evil goddess can rise!"

"We will see about that, stupid Sea Spawn!" With that, the telekhines made a volcano explode, and flung all the molten earth that came out of it, at Percy.

_I must have the worst luck in the world_, thought Percy as he reluctantly made a shield of water, which turned his skin to blisters, to protect himself from the impending lava attack. The telekhines screamed in outrage as he was spared from being burned alive.

So the battle with the telekhines resumed once again, just like it had moments ago, before the whole monster army had arrived to destroy them all. Since it took up too much energy to keep up the shield of water, and he was being burned more and more by the second, he let the water flood back into the Sea of Torture, and began to just block the lava with his sword.

The telekhines still hadn't gotten any smarter since they never tried a combined attack again, just individual blows with lava. While this way of attacking was more annoying and tiresome, it was easier to deal with. Immediately the telekhines began to grow frustrated at Percy's ability to be mostly unaffected by the lava, and began to withdraw again when they saw they couldn't possibly win this fight, not when their main advantage had no effect on their opponent.

Just when Percy is about to defeat the telekhines completely, he heard an ear-splitting roar from the sidelines. He turned just in time to see Typhon leave his spectator spot to see him marching not to Percy, but to Annabeth where she was currently battling skeletons with Nico and Hazel, completely unaware of the impending attack.

"Annabeth, watch out!" frantically shouted Percy.

But he was too far away for Annabeth to hear him. So he fled from his battle with the telekhines, leaving them utterly confused, and sprinted after Typhon, who was making decent progress to his beloved Annabeth.

Percy continued sprinting at full speed, completely ignoring his broken leg and busted ribs, until he was right behind Typhon. He immediately drew Riptide and stabbed the giant in his kneecap, but the monster didn't even falter in step; he just pulled Riptide out of his knee and chucked it for 100 miles in the opposite direction.

Since he was desperate, Percy tried calling on a little bit of water from the Sea of Torture like he did with is fight with Kampê, but the wave that was thrown at the giant only blinded him for a second. After the giant cleared the water out of his eyes, he continued to make his way to Annabeth, and he was almost where he could step on her if he jumped far enough.

With a lurch of his heart, Percy realized that if he didn't do anything to stop or distract Typhon, Annabeth was going to be crushed or worse and taken from Percy. So Percy knew what he had to do, even though he realized it would kill him, he thought at least Annabeth would live and be able to escape this torture pit.

_Annabeth, I'm sorry. You will never know how much I love you, and that I tried so hard to protect you. Mom, I'm sorry I made you worry so much and I died without being able to say good-bye. Paul, take care of Mom and know that you are the best stepfather a boy could have. Nico, know I have always admired you and your ability to not care about what others think of you and also know I will always regret what happened to Bianca_.

With that final good-bye declared in his head, Percy unleashed the full extent of his powers over the water, storms, and earthquakes at Typhon, for daring to threaten the love of Percy's life.


	17. Chapter 17

** Chapter 17- Percy**

As Percy Jackson saw that Typhon, the tallest monster ever and the gods' greatest enemy, was about to crush and kill the love of his life, Annabeth Chase, Percy's heart split in two. All Percy could see was the fact that his Wise Girl was about to die, and she didn't even know it, and that is what Percy thought about as he unleashed the full extent of his powers on the humongous giant.

Percy had never even attempted to unleash all of his powers, because he knew it was dangerous for him and the people around him, but now he did it with no effort and ease. He flung his arms in the air and called upon his dad's powers, achieving the Blessing of Poseidon, and rose in the air to deal with the monster that was about to murder his girlfriend.

_Please let this work, Dad_, Percy prayed, _I know you will lose me but let me do it because I'm saving not only my friends but destroying your greatest enemy._ Maybe it was this fact that let Poseidon complete the blessing upon his only demigod son, or because he knew that his son would die either way if the love of his life was killed, either way, Poseidon blessed Percy with his sea, storm, and earthquake abilities.

The Blessing of Poseidon worked just in time, right before Typhon was about to step on and crush Annabeth to death, when Percy shouted, "Wait!"

Percy said this with so much power, that every monster and demigod turned toward him as he flew up in the air and his eyes glowed an even deeper and brighter emerald green, rather than his normal sea-green, and screamed at the top of his lungs in pain and anger.

While Percy rose in the air, as high as Jason and Thalia fly, and he reached the height of Typhon's midsection, that's when the Sea of Torture began to stir. It started with just a little ripple, which turned into a small wave that quickly grew in strength and magnitude, until the whole ocean was in this one powerful wave, at the control of the son of Poseidon.

Everyone's attention was divided between Percy flying in the air with his arms still raised and with the freaky emerald green eyes, and the Sea that he now controlled completely. You could see the strain this was causing Percy, and since he was now drenched in the Sea of Torture's water, his skin was now blistering severely from the acidic burns.

Just as it seemed that Percy would drop the wave back into the Sea, he suddenly threw his arms in front of him, and the whole Sea of Torture leapt out of the ocean and flung itself at the confused Typhon.

Typhon staggered backward under being hit with 500,000 gallons of ocean, but remained standing. This was actually good for Percy because he began to manipulate the water and solidify it so it acted as ropes to bind Typhon.

While Typhon was being bound immobile by the water-ropes, Percy had called upon another power, Poseidon's power over storms. Percy was now surrounded by a category 5 hurricane that he created by himself, complete with 200 mph winds, lightning crackling around him, and pouring rain that turned itself into ice.

Percy was completely controlling the storm, not for a second losing control over the winds, lightning, or ice. His black hair that was grimy after the several weeks in Tartarus was blowing all over the place and his eyes remained the emerald green color but he had a look of sheer determination on his face.

As the severest hurricane ever reached its full strength and the water-ropes finished binding Typhon completely, Percy hurled the full force of the hurricane at the giant.

The 200 mph of winds hit Typhon full on, carrying the icy rain with it, and with the lightning being hurled at him, the monster bellowed in pain, but still did not fall. While Typhon was now burned, electrocuted, and covered in tiny cuts from the ice hitting him, he refused to be knocked over.

This angered Percy immensely and he narrowed his eyes in hatred for the monster and summoned his final and most dangerous power of his father's, the power over earthquakes.

If Annabeth and the others had thought that the explosion Percy created at Mount St. Helens a couple of years ago was powerful and great, it was nothing compared to the power Percy released now.

With a scream of bottled up anger and frustration and pain, Percy once again threw his arms up but this time his back arched back so severely that the others thought it would break. What Percy did was he summoned Poseidon's power of the earth shaker, and combining that with finding every source of water under the dozens of volcanoes and bringing the water to the surface so the pressure became too much so each and every volcano erupted with lava at the same time.

Percy saw out of the corner of his eye that his friends were now all huddled together and Thalia and Jason had created a force field made of wind to protect everyone from the lava that now was raining everywhere. This made Percy happy that none of his friends were going to be hurt or had been injured by what he was going to do and had done.

When the twenty-eight volcanoes erupted at once, the exploding lava hit Typhon point-blank all over his ginormous body and finally, the gods' greatest enemy barely had anytime to shriek in pain before he basically melted in on himself, and in less than a minute, he was just a pile of ashes.

The lava had also hit every monster within a 100 mile radius, which left no monster to attack the demigods, who had all survived with no major injuries, again. All the monsters, including Typhon, were now just a pile of ash that had no chance of reforming any time soon.

Unfortunately, Percy didn't have a force field of wind to protect him too. In fact, when he made all the volcanoes erupt at once, he too had been shot up into the air, higher than he had gone when he was shot out of Mount St. Helens. Percy flew so high that he had reached 700 feet in the air, before he began his free-fall descent back to the ground of Tartarus.

Also, when the son of Poseidon had used his earthquake power and had combined it with his water ability to make the volcanoes explode with lava; he too was pelted with lava, just like Typhon and the rest of the monster army. But rather than disintegrating into a pile of ashes, Percy was burnt so severely, that some of the flesh on his limbs was burnt completely black.

Furthermore, when Percy had summoned the most powerful hurricane ever, complete with icy rain, he was cut over a hundred times by the ice pellets. So Percy had over a hundred tiny cuts over him, acidic burns from the wave that was summoned from the Sea of Torture, and some parts of his body were black and crisp from lava.

After the ground had stopped rumbling from the magnitude 10 earthquake Percy had created and the volcanoes stopped spurting lava, Percy was barely conscious as he fell from 700 feet up in the air. Though Percy was aware of his increasing velocity and speed back toward the ground, he couldn't summon enough power or energy to get the ocean to absorb or catch him as he fell. So Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, fell at 60 miles per hour toward scorching hot lava that covered every part of the floor of Tartarus.

Luckily, Jason saw everything that Percy did, including how he was falling at break-neck speed toward his death, so Jason, without even bothering to tell the others what was happening or what he was doing, took off at full flying speed to save his heroic friend.

Even at the fastest speed Jason had ever achieved, 105 mph, Jason just barely caught Percy before he did a header into the ground that was encrusted with fiery lava. Jason had to basically dive and fly at the same time to catch Percy by his mangled shirt to save him from a death either by lava or the impact.

With Percy now safely in his arms, so light from barely any food over his time in Tartarus, and mortally injured, Jason began his flight back to the Doors of Death where the rest of the group, especially Annabeth, were waiting anxiously.

Jason had to make sure that Percy wouldn't slip out of his grasp because he was limp with his head hanging loosely at his side. In 5 minutes time, Jason had safely flown to the Doors of Death, and he laid Percy as gently as he could on the softest part of the ground he could find and that wasn't covered in molten earth.

When Percy was set on the ground, he shrieked in agony. Percy heard a collective gasp and he saw Annabeth with tears in her eyes, but he couldn't concentrate on that, he was in so much excruciating pain.

Quickly his friends knelt beside him to see what he had hurt, which felt like everything, and only until Annabeth had picked him up into her arms, did he stop bellowing in pain.

"Shh Percy, it's ok. We're safe now; our friends came to get us out of this place. We will leave as soon as we treat your wounds, ok? Also, you are the bravest person I know for doing what you just did. You defeated Typhon singlehandedly, when the gods could barely do it together. Percy Jackson, you truly are the most powerful demigod ever to live," soothed Annabeth.

Only then did the group of demigods see how badly Percy really was injured. He was rapidly losing large amounts of blood from the deep gash on side, his right arm was shattered in 4 places, his shoulder was completely dislocated from its socket, his right leg was broken severely at both the tibia and fibula, he had multiple fractured ribs, a cracked skull, a head wound on his forehead, and he had the several small cuts on body oozing blood everywhere. Finally, Percy's entire backside and left leg was black with severe burns, and rest of his body was covered in blisters from the acidic water.

"Gods, Percy! Oh, you knew you were gravely injured and you still battled Typhon, using all your strength! Percy, why did you do this?" hysterically demanded Annabeth, for she could see the light was leaving Percy's now normal sea-green eyes.

"I had (gasp in pain) to. Annabeth, Typhon was a millisecond away from stepping (gasp) on you and crushing you to death and you (gasp) didn't know he was there, he had to be stopped, which I did," weakly responded Percy.

"You shouldn't have done it like that. Percy, by summoning the wave, hurricane, and earthquake all at the same time, you completely drained your life energy and aura. I can literally see your soul leaving your body," sadly said Nico, close to tears.

Just then there was a bright flash of light and an ear-splitting clap of thunder, and before anyone knew what had happened, there were the 12 Olympians, 13 if you count Hades, standing before the group of demigods that were gathered around the dying Percy Jackson.

"No, Percy! I won't let you die! No, hold on!" sobbed Annabeth.

"Wait, what?" demanded Poseidon, emerging in front of the other gods and goddesses to see what they were all so upset about. But when the god of the sea saw that it was his son lying there, almost dead, he completely broke down.

"Hold on, Percy! That is an order, the first one I have ever given you as a parent! I will _not_ let my favorite child die, while you acted so nobly and with so much bravery! Please Percy, hold on! Apollo, can't you do something?" wept Poseidon.

"Poseidon, I am truly sorry, but he's almost gone. Percy only has a few more minutes to live and say his good-byes, and then…" Apollo had to stop because he too, had begun to cry for the fallen Percy.

That is when Annabeth started screaming at Percy, "Seaweed Brain, damn it! You _promised_ me that we would always be together, don't die letting me think you broke your oath!"

"I know Annabeth, and I'm so sorry. But this was the oath to keep the final breath, us being together. But know that I died protecting and loving you with my whole heart, Wise Girl. Please don't ever forget me, and everything I did was for you and the world," whispered Percy to his hysterically sobbing Wise Girl.

This declaration of love caused everyone in the group, including the gods and goddesses, to show some kind of emotion. Zeus let some tears fall from his eyes for his fallen nephew, and even Ares and Dionysus choked up at the fact that after all Percy had done and faced, he was now dying, too far gone to save.

After every single god had shed at least one tear, Percy continued on with his good-byes.

"Nico, I have always admired the fact that you don't care what other people think of you and also know that I have never forgiven myself for what happened to Bianca all those years ago, even if you have. I would never have given the job of leading the others to the Doors of Death to anyone but you, and you did it.

"Jason, even if I was jealous of you, you deserve the leadership. Please keep the group together and lead them and kick some serious Gaea butt for me.

"Hazel, you are the nicest person I've ever known, and you deserve this second chance at life.

"Frank, I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better not only as a friend but as your great-great-great-many more greats-great uncle. Know also that you are the coolest child of Mars or Ares that I've ever known.

"Leo, keep up the jokes and know that you bring the happiness and hope to the group. Don't stop being our Repair Boy; you are the only one who could build an entire ship in 6 months.

"Piper, while I never got to know you that well, you seem like the most down-to-earth child of Aphrodite there has ever been. Keep on using the charm speak, it diffidently saved our lives a couple of times.

"Olympians, especially you, Lord Zeus, don't think my death lets you off the hook off your promise to me last summer. Also remember that you really do need your children if you want any chance on winning this war with the giants and Gaea.

"Dad, thank you for giving me these abilities that come from your powers. Also thank you for being a great father, well for a god anyway; please don't forget me. Can you tell Mom what happened and how I died, and also that I'm sorry I made her worry so much and didn't get to say good-bye in person," requested Percy, whose voice was barely more than a whisper, it was that weak.

"I will Percy, you have made me the proudest father ever, god or not. You did something that even us gods couldn't do, and you did it by yourself with your powers. Know that we will never forget you or how you died the greatest hero's death there has ever been," promised Poseidon, barely able to speak through his tears.

"Finally, I thank all of you for being there for me, no matter what."

With that, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, took one last shaky breath and his heart gave one last final beat before falling silent and still.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18- Annabeth**

As Annabeth Chase watched Nico di Angelo pale severely and start sobbing, Annabeth knew that Nico had sensed that Percy Jackson's soul had left his body and her Seaweed Brain was now dead. This is when Annabeth went completely and utterly hysterical.

Annabeth flung herself over Percy's limp lifeless body, and picked him up in her arms and rocked him back and forth in her arms.

"Perseus Jackson, you can't be dead! Seaweed Brain! You can't leave me; you promised we would always be together! Please wake up!" Annabeth wept, her tears falling into Percy's blood-stained black hair.

If Annabeth thought her grief was bad, it was nothing compared to what Poseidon was experiencing. Unlike Annabeth, Poseidon didn't scream at his son to wake up, he knew that Percy was gone, so instead he sat heavily on a rock and sobbed silently into his hands.

Poseidon seemed to age 50 years in 5 seconds, his black hair, which looked just like Percy's, turned gray, and all of his laugh lines disappeared into sadness and despair. Just when Zeus had been about to put a comforting hand on his heartbroken brother, Poseidon lost it completely, unleashing his full power.

The god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes rose up in the air, froze the entire ocean over, created a massive hurricane around him, and the earth shook so hard, everyone lost their balance and fell flat on their backs. Luckily, Zeus thought ahead and blasted his brother with his master lightning bolt, before Poseidon lost sight of everything and unleashed his true form.

"Percy!" thundered Poseidon, the one word full of devastation and grief for his dead son, filled the air and echoed for a full moment before everything was silent again.

Suddenly though, Poseidon spun around to his other brother, Hades, Lord of the Underworld.

"You listen to me right now Hades; I am accompanying you back to the Underworld where I will witness my son's trial that decides where he goes in his afterlife. Perseus Jackson better at least go to Elysium, he should go to Isles of the Blest after all he had done for us and the world! If there is even one judge on that panel that, wait what are you doing?" Poseidon interrupted his own threat, when he saw that Hades had narrowed his eyes in concentration and was holding his hands over Percy's dead body, as of performing some sort of blessing or ritual.

"Shut up, Poseidon! In case you hadn't noticed, I'm saving your son!" snapped Hades.

"Do you mean that Percy is actually alive?" demanded Poseidon, overjoyed at the possibility.

"Yes and no," mysteriously responded Hades.

"Can you be clearer on that; I'm not Athena, I don't have time for riddles."

"Like my son told you, Percy's soul has left his body. However, while you were throwing a tantrum, I used my powers over death to freeze your son's soul in place so it wouldn't disappear and travel to the Underworld, where I could not do this."

"What exactly is this?"

"Giving you the possibility to bring your dead son back to life, Poseidon. Mind you, I am breaking every rule of death that I created, but since your son has saved my son a couple of times, and us gods too, I figured this is the least I could do for the boy," revealed Hades.

"So you can bring Percy back to life? What are you waiting for, do it now!" commanded Poseidon.

"It's not that simple. There are many possibilities on what I can do, although I would need the other Olympians' aid for this, but the person who knows what is best for Perseus Jackson needs to decide his fate," explained Hades.

"Why, of course I know what is best for Percy! He is my son!" bellowed Poseidon.

"I know you care for your son very much Poseidon, but the person has to decide based on what is not good for themselves, but what is the truly best thing for not only for Percy but for the whole world," reasoned Hades.

During this whole debate between the gods, the demigods, including Annabeth, were just sitting on the sidelines and watching the debate unfold before them. Well, Annabeth was still clutching Percy's lifeless body to her chest, but she had stopped wailing in despair.

"I see, you're right, Hades; I would just judge on what is best for me and my son, not the world. This why I am letting Percy's closest friend and the love of his life decide his fate, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Wise choice, brother. Alright daughter of wisdom, this is what I can do for Percy Jackson. I can let go of my hold on his soul and spirit, enabling him to go to the Underworld, where I can personally assure that he would automatically go to Isles of the Blest.

"If you do not wish to cause Percy pain by returning him to his broken body, I can place him in limbo where my son, Nico, who is a necromancer meaning he can talk to spirits of the dead whenever he wants, can common him at ease and have Percy's ghost be with you and your group.

"Now these next options I would need the aid of my siblings, but I know they will surely agree. The first of these options are to make Percy a full god, and he would be the god of bravery and loyalty, traits he has displayed his whole life, and died showing.

"Or I can make Percy immortal and make him the advisor to all gods and goddesses, mainly aiding them in the means of dealing with their children, the heroes. This way we would always be bound by our oath last summer after the Second Titan War that we made with him.

"Since Perseus Jackson has done many great deeds and countlessly showed his heroism, I will remind you of the offer I made him a couple of weeks ago in a dream, of him being my immortal servant of the Underworld for all of eternity, forever controlling death and riches with me. Finally-," Hades tried to continue, but was interrupted by Poseidon.

"The girl will have more options than of him just being your death assistant, Hades. As Percy being my son, I would love to make him immortal and have him rule by my side under the seas for all of time," growled Poseidon, making it clear that he wasn't going to let his son be taken from him that quickly.

"Poseidon, I think all the gods would like to be heard on this subject. While the boy can and has been irksome, I offer him a place by my side in the skies, I could use his persistence and unwavering loyalty. For also, he has saved the gods many times and he once retrieved my mater bolt against all the odds," inputted Zeus.

"Peter Johnson can have a place by side as assistant to the god of wine and parties," added Dionysus.

"I would love for Percy to advise me in love and beauty. If you decided to let him become immortal and serve me, I would let you and him continue your romance. Percabeth has always been my favorite couple to watch develop and struggle; you, Annabeth Chase, and Percy Jackson were made for each other," squealed Aphrodite.

"Even I have to admit the kid has got some serious talent in battle; so I would be willing to be put aside our differences to let the boy serve by my side forever, helping me with war and battles," stated Ares.

"Perseus once saved one of my workshops from telekhines, and neatly killed himself in the process. He is welcome to serve by my side to work in the fires and be an immortal blacksmith."

"The kid has done me great services in the past, I would love for him to assist me in music, medicine, sunlight, and archery."

"Even I can't deny that Percy has done well, for a man I mean. He could be of great assistance to the Hunt, and I can teach him about the moon and archery."

"I don't know the boy that well, but maybe if I got him to eat some cereal, I could teach him about agriculture. If he served me, at least _he_ wouldn't be leaving me every winter for the Underworld, like my daughter Persephone!"

"The least I could do for the boy is aid me in being the Queen of Olympus and deal with the family problems I deal with , being the goddess of marriage and families."

"Percy did his best to save my son, Luke, from doing what he did, and he helped Luke find himself again in the end. I would welcome the thought of Percy aiding me in delivering messages and my thievery."

"Alas, it is my turn. I do not mean offense to Percy or Poseidon, but I do not wish for Perseus to assist me in my wisdom and crafts, my daughter. He is too impulsive, and rarely has a plan before acting. However, I will offer advice Annabeth, listen to your heart for this decision and not the other gods, for they will try to sway your decision to benefit themselves.

"Also there is one final choice, that would allow young Percy to remain a demigod and not immortal to be taken from you. The other Olympians and myself can each give him our blessing and a little bit of our abilities; this would allow Percy to live again. Although, the catch is that we cannot cure him of his physical or mental state, this is something you have to aid him with, without our help. Now what is your choice, my daughter?"

This was the most difficult choice Annabeth had ever faced, and she had decided a lot of things over her years of being a demigod. But this didn't just concern herself, but it affected her Seaweed Brain and the rest of the world.

While Annabeth didn't want Percy to die, she didn't want him to be in any more pain. Also if she chose one of the gods to make Percy their advisor or even a full god, then he would be immortal but she would never see him again, and that would destroy her. Oh, what should she do?

"Annabeth, I know this must be so hard on you to just be put on the spot to decide. So as your and Percy's friend, I would recommend you let the other gods bless him and let Percy come back. We can heal him physically and mentally, together," advised Jason.

This relieved Annabeth to have another person's advice that knew what she was going through. After Jason shared his opinion, the rest of the demigods agreed with him and all told Annabeth that no matter what, they were in this together.

"Alright Hades, Poseidon, and other Olympians, I have made my decision…. I wish for you all to bless Perseus Jackson so he will return to us; I accept the responsibility to care for him and return Percy back to his top physical and mental form, without any aid from the gods," decided Annabeth, knowing she had done the right thing, and had not forced Percy to do something he would hate her for.

With a thrust of his hands, Hades returned Percy's soul back to his body, and he woke with a start and blinked uncertainly around him, unable to comprehend what was happening and how he had just returned to the world of the living.

When Percy had been dead, Nico had been in great discomfort due to their empathy link and now he looked relieved but shocked on what had just happened.

"Wait, wh-what just happened? And why the long faces guys, who died?" croaked Percy uncertainly.

This got a laugh out of everyone, even the Olympians, because of the irony of this. Annabeth couldn't stop cracking up at the bewildered expression on Percy's face, showing how confused he was on why everyone was laughing hysterically. Finally, only Nico had recovered after 5 minutes and he was able to explain to Percy was everyone was cracking up.

"Percy, you were dead! I saw your soul leave your body and your life essence go out completely! So to answer your question of who died, you did!"

"I was dead?! Then how am I alive? And stop laughing, this isn't funny, this is freaky!" shouted Percy, which only made them laugh harder.

But suddenly Poseidon sobered up, and looked very serious and addressed his previously dead son.

"Percy, you did die but when us gods blessed you, we were able to bring you back to life. So now you have the blessing of the sea from me, the sky from Zeus, the Underworld and riches from Hades, wine and parties from Dionysus, wisdom and crafts from Athena, beauty and love from Aphrodite, war from Ares, fire and blacksmiths from Hephaestus, sunlight and archery from Apollo, the Hunt, moonlight, and again archery from Artemis, marriage and families from Hera, agriculture from Demeter, and messages and thievery from Hermes, though please don't become a thief on me Percy.

"But by bringing you back to world of the living from the world of the dead, we have balanced the scales with evil. So now you cannot receive any aid from us gods without giving evil a free pass to do something to you, which means ambrosia, nectar, and the water cannot heal you. So you will have to heal like a mortal, but you do have a remarkable healing ability anyway, so you should recover greatly over the next few weeks, just don't reinjure yourself or use your powers," warned Poseidon.

"I'm sorry brother, but Gaea is getting stronger, we must leave and the Doors of Death must close," interrupted Zeus.

"But who will close the doors, brother?"

"I will, I don't want to endanger my friends now that I'm fair game to evil," volunteered Percy.

But before Poseidon could scream at his son that he would do no such thing, Annabeth right-hooked Percy, striking his temple, and Percy collapsed instantly in her arms.

"Sorry Seaweed Brain, but I just got you back, you are _never_ leaving me again, no matter what!" Annabeth told Percy's unconscious body.

This made the whole group crack up again, with relief in the air because they all seriously thought Percy was going to sacrifice him again.

"But who will close the doors?"

"I will," said a female voice behind them. Everyone spun around to see Calypso walking towards them, looking determined.

"While I would love to leave this place, I love Percy too much to let him sacrifice himself to stay in this awful pit, so I will close the doors behind you. Tell Percy when he wakes up, that I will always remember him and that I love him with all my heart. By the way, run! Gaea has gotten her blood sacrifice and she will rise any moment!"

"What female demigod's blood did she use? All of us are here!" Annabeth pondered.

"Yours, Annabeth Chase. Look at your hand and you will see you have a very small cut that only bled a few drops of blood, but bled nonetheless. Now run!"

Just as Calypso shouted this warning at them, the group sprinted through the Doors of Death and heard them shut firmly behind them. However, they still heard Gaea laughing manically and promising she will now rise again and kill ever demigod alive and destroy the gods.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19- Percy**

Percy Jackson slowly regained consciousness and his first thought was how much his temple was splitting in pain. His second realization was that someone was repeatedly slapping his face and shouting at him.

"What on earth is so important that someone is slapping me? Also, why does my head hurt so much? Percy croaked his voice hoarse from lack of use.

"I didn't know I had that powerful of a punch, Seaweed Brain. So sorry for the headache, I guess I hit your temple pretty hard then. Anyway, I was slapping you to wake up because I really don't want us to get crushed by the falling marble because the House of Hades is collapsing!" exclaimed Annabeth.

"Collapsing?! Why didn't you say so? Let's get out of here!" shouted Percy.

As the others leapt to their feet, including Annabeth, but when Percy tried to, his vision got hazy and he almost passed out again.

"Come here, Seaweed Brain, I'll give you a hand."

As Annabeth did her best to gently try to get Percy to his feet, he wondered how he was going to run, but Percy just figured he would have to ignore the pain.

"I know what you are thinking Seaweed Brain, and I am carrying you, and that's final!"

"But that will just slow us down!"

"So will you trying to run on a shattered leg! Percy, either you are being carried while you are conscious or unconscious, I'm not afraid to right-hook you again."

"Fine, but I don't like it."

"Too bad, Seaweed Brain! Hop on, _before _we get crushed by marble!"

Annabeth snatched Percy and flung him up on her back and sprinted toward the exit of the temple. They made it out of the black and gold colored House of Hades just as a column fell and collapsed the entrance/exit.

"Whew, that was close! Is everyone out and ok?" Annabeth demanded.

After everyone was accounted for and checked for injuries, except Percy because they already knew he was anything but fine, they started to laugh from the relief at being alive and mostly in one piece.

"I'm so glad you guys survived! We were so afraid that we had lost you guys forever; this is why you are never leaving our sights again!" squealed Piper.

"Guys, I hate to break up this happy moment, but I suggest that we get going before any monster smells nine demigods together, and we've got Thalia and Percy who have the strongest scent in the history of demigods, especially Percy," Nico reasoned.

"How come everyone picks on me about my smell? I'm a demigod like everyone else here!" claimed Percy.

"Percy, you just defeated Typhon singlehandedly and came back from the land of the dead; you are the most powerful demigod to ever live. Now enough talking, and let's go!" ordered Nico.

With Percy still being carried by Annabeth, they set off on their all day journey back to the Argo II, where the Hunters and Coach Hedge were anxiously awaited them.

After nightfall, they finally reached the shore where their giant battle ship was waiting for them. The minute Annabeth, Percy, and the others set foot on the main deck; Coach Hedge trotted up to Annabeth and Percy and tackled them in a hug.

"I don't even care that you were down in that pit for several weeks without supervision, I'm just happy that you weren't killed in battle!" exclaimed Coach Hedge, overjoyed that the two demigods were alive.

When the satyr finally let Annabeth and Percy up, he regained his strict composure again.

"So it's good to see you, Cupcake," he said to Percy, slugging him on his right shoulder, in what was meant to be a good-natured manly greeting.

Unfortunately, Percy's right shoulder was the shoulder that was shattered and dislocated, and the punch made Percy howl in pain and sink to his knees, clutching his wounded shoulder.

"Coach Gleeson Hedge! Do you not see the condition Percy is in? You just punched his shoulder that is broken!" furiously shouted Annabeth, trying to soothe Percy at the same time that she was reprimanding Coach Hedge, who was looking sheepish and embarrassed.

"Listen Cupcake, I didn't mean to hurt you," apologized the satyr.

"I-it's fine Coach, you didn't know," forgave Percy.

"We should probably get you cupcakes down to the infirmary; come on son, I'll help you," offered Coach Hedge.

"No, I'm ok. We should probably have a meeting to discuss what to do now," insisted Percy, blowing off everyone's cries of that he has to be medically treated.

"Percy Jackson, you are going to the infirmary this instant! We can have the meeting there, once you're all fixed up," asserted Annabeth.

Not waiting for a reply, Annabeth flung Percy over his shoulder, it was amazing how light he was because right now he was skin and bones, and marched off to the sick bay. With one look shared by Piper, Thalia, Jason, Nico, Hazel, Frank, and Leo, they dutifully followed Annabeth who still had a complaining Percy on her back, to the infirmary.

When the rest of the group arrived, Annabeth had already set Percy on the bed, where he was protesting and trying to resist his girlfriend's assistance of medical treatment. As soon as Percy saw the others arrive, he tried to persuade them to get Annabeth to leave him alone.

"Guys, can you please tell Annabeth here that I'm fine and we really have to discuss what has happened?" this question was aimed at everyone, but it was Jason who did the betrayal.

"Sorry Percy, but you need medical treatment, like this second. So shut up and let Annabeth help you; then we can have meeting _in here_, while you and Annabeth rest," commanded Jason.

"Traitor," muttered Percy under his breath, as he finally let Annabeth take off his shirt so she could bandage and treat his many wounds.

The demigods had to look away when they saw the bones sticking out of Percy's shoulder and the long gash on his side that exposed his muscles and broken ribs. Everyone was green in the face when they saw the leg bones sticking at a nauseating angle of Percy's shin, and then many had to leave the room when they saw Percy's back and left leg, where the flesh was completely blackened and charred with devastating burns everywhere.

After a half hour of teeth clenching, moans, and yelps of pain, Annabeth had finally bandaged and set everything in the right place. Though Percy had never felt so much pain and had never been as tired as he was right then, he knew they had to discuss what happened so he called the group back in the room.

"Alright, you guys can share your journey first, I just need a minute to catch my breath after what's happened," said Percy.

Nico especially understood how traumatizing Tartarus was; he was fine with leading the story so he began to tell the story of the man-eating horses and how they had become evil again.

Percy and Annabeth were great listeners of the story; they didn't interrupt at all and just nodded to show that they were still listening. When Nico got to the part of the Roman gods visiting them, Percy and Annabeth shared an amused look, which made the others wonder what they possibly could be thinking about.

Though when Nico reached the part of the ichthyocentaurs' attack, Percy paled at the thought of having to battle every sea creature there was, but he motioned for Nico to keep going with recounting their journey.

After their encounter with Khione was told, and the next battle with Oceanus was expressed, Percy shook his head in dismay but still didn't interrupt Nico. The last part was their arrival in Greece and their adventure to the Doors of Death was shared, Nico debated with himself if he should share the part of his empathy link with Percy, and he decided that Percy had a right to know.

"Percy, you should know that the minute you and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, I set up an empathy link between us so I would know if anything happened to you two. So I just want to ask, and I'm sorry to make you relive it, we really do need to know though, but what the heck happened?" demanded Nico.

"I understand why you guys need to know, but do you realize what you guys faced and defeated is incredible? Congratulations Nico and Jason for being able to lead the others, through these dangerous obstacles. However Nico, creating the empathy link was and still is incredibly dangerous, because it's not going away even though I'm out of Tartarus.

"Anyway, Annabeth and I will try to recount our journey through Tartarus with as much as we can remember. So, you guys were there to witness me letting go of the ledge to keep Annabeth from falling all by herself. But after that,"

With that, Percy recounted on how he shielded Annabeth from the debris with his body and took the impact himself so Annabeth wouldn't get hurt. Though everyone rolled their eyes at this, they were realizing that this was why Percy/Nico had felt so much pain at first.

However, everyone's eyes widened with admiration when Percy told them of the battle between himself and Kronos possessing Arachne, all of this while he was seriously injured. Nico smiled to himself when he realized that he was right on, on the fact only Percy would be able to defeat Kronos for a second time.

While everyone sympathized with Percy on how awful it must have been to have your own power turn against you, Nico was thinking that must have been torture to have water burn you like acid and then only to fall into a river full of this type of acidic water.

When Percy got to the part of the Greek gods visiting them and helping, only then did Nico realize that was what Percy and Annabeth's secret smile had been about.

Nico himself paled when he heard of the battle with the immortal skeletons and his assumptions of their creepiness was confirmed when he heard how they refused to die and immediately reformed from their ashes.

As if Percy didn't have enough fights, Nico was amazed to hear of the fight with Polybotes and how Percy defeated him while using the Blessing of Ares. Comparing the giant to the 3rd defeat of the Minotaur, Dr. Thorn, evil centaurs, Cyclops, hellhounds, and finally, telekhines, Nico and the group's adventure seemed like nothing.

So when Percy finished recounting everything from letting go and the Battle of Tartarus, everyone was stunned into silence, with their jaws hanging open and their eyes bugging out of their head, all in complete awe.

Unfortunately, Percy mistook their silence for that they thought their adventures were way more dangerous and challenging than his, so he started to lean back into the bed, looking disappointed. When Nico saw this, he immediately spoke what everyone was thinking.

"Percy, you can't possibly think that we aren't in complete admiration right now! What you did, all while mortally injured, was so brave of you and it just proves me right that you are the most powerful demigod ever to live."

While Percy tried to shrug off the compliment, saying it was nothing; Nico knew Perce really did appreciate their praise.

However, Nico saw something in Percy's eyes that scared him. Percy looked a little broken on the inside but Nico could tell Percy was desperately trying not to let the others know how much Tartarus had affected him, and he respected this wish because he himself knew the horrors of Tartarus and what it could do to your mind.

"Wait Annabeth, why did you knock me out anyway?" inquired Percy.

"Seaweed Brain, I spent a half hour today believing you were dead, all while holding your lifeless body. I am _never_ leaving your side again, not even for one little measly second," swore Annabeth.

Everyone was about to give the two lovebirds a hard time about this declaration of love, when the ship began to shudder and everyone was lurched out of their seats.

_"I told you demigods that you couldn't beat me; now that I have been fully awakened you will never be safe from me, and my new, er, assistant! We will now have your ship and all of your blood to strengthen us!"_ claimed Gaea, inside everyone's minds.

After Gaea's awful voice stopped echoing, everyone, including Percy, shot out of their seats and raced up the stairs to see what on earth was going on. What they saw, paralyzed Percy with fear because the ship was literally being pulled under the ocean, taking everything and everyone with it.

How Gaea was able to do this, Percy didn't know, considering the ocean floor was 50 miles below them. Although he considered that now she had full risen, her powers were that more extensive, including being able to pull a whole ship under the ocean.

That was when Percy realized the others, including Annabeth, couldn't breathe underwater like he could, so summoning all his remaining strength, Percy created a massive air bubble around everyone's heads, just as the ship emerged completely into the sea, taking Percy with it.

Though Percy knew he had used enough of his powers to keep the others above the surface, he knew that they needed the ship to get anywhere. Using his very last drop of energy, Percy built the pressure under the sinking battleship, and made it skyrocket into the air, where hopefully the others would be able to board it again.

As for Percy, his vision was beginning to darken and narrow, and he knew he was seconds from blacking out and he was sinking like a rock toward the ocean floor. Just before his consciousness left him, Percy heard a frantic voice inside his head and he knew it belonged to his father.

_"Percy, stay awake! I will do what I can for you, but why oh why do you have to be so noble and loyal just to save your friends? But whatever you do, don't lose hope and know that Gaea and her assistant just want to break you and hurt you as much as possible. I believe in you, and remember we will be coming to help you!"_

Suddenly, Poseidon's voice and warning was cut off, and a new cold sinister voice that Percy couldn't place, started speaking.

_Perfect, it's Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon! Just where I want you; oh, we will have so much fun together!_

After the cruel voice stopped speaking, everything went black and Percy Jackson sunk to the ocean floor.


	20. The END, For Now

**The End, For Now**

Percy: "Why do you hate me so much?"

Me: "I don't hate you; you're actually my favorite character."

Percy: "Then what's with the pain?"

Me: "It adds to the story, makes it more dramatic."

Percy: "Not for me!"

Me: "Blame Rick Riordan, I wouldn't have had the chance to torture you in Tartarus if he didn't leave us hanging by making you and Annabeth fall at the very end of the book!"

Percy: "Good point; RIORDAN, I need to have a word with you!"

Me: "Don't beat up the person who created you!"

Percy: "Wait, I thought you created us!"

Me: "Nope, Rick Riordan did."

Percy: "Than how are you writing about us? Is this plagiarism?!"

Me: "Calm down, this is FanFiction."

Percy: "Fine, wait this story didn't just end right?"

Me: "Yup, it's over! Did you like my cliffhanger?"

Percy: "You ended it with us being sucked into the ocean floor by Gaea! You are worse than Rick Riordan!"

Me: "Chill! Would you like a sequel so I don't leave you hanging?"

Percy: "Write the sequel now!"

Me: "Are you sure about that?"

Percy: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Let's just say I don't plan for you to have the best luck in the world in my sequel."

Percy: "Can you not kill me?"

Me: "We'll see." (laughs evilly)

Percy: "I see how it is, just go easy on me, ok?"

Me: "No promises, but you are the hero. To read what happens next, read my sequel The House of Hades: The War of the Earth. Until next time!" (grins mysteriously)

Percy: "Please read people, you are the only ones who can save me in this story; don't let her kill me off again!"


End file.
